Everything Happens For a Reason
by simone33
Summary: When Bella was eight her mom died, when she was fifteen, she met the Cullen's. They left her a year later just after her sixteenth birthday. Now a year later Charlie has dead leave her and her older adopted brother Sam. Sam knows they need a new start so moves her close to her pen pal, which was also their mom's home town. What will Mystic Fall make of the Swan's?
1. Chapter 1

**Declaimer I don't owe The Vampire Dairies or Twilight. I like to say thank you to blueguju who Beta this for me.**

**When Bella was eight her mom died, when she was fifteen, she met the Cullen's. They left her a year later just after her sixteenth birthday. Now a year later Charlie has dead leave her and her older adopted brother Sam. Sam knows the need a new start so moves her close to her pen pal, which was also their mom's home town. What will Mystic Fall make of the Swan's?**

**Everything Happens For a Reason**

**Chapter One**

**Jeremy POV**

"Hey Jeremy, you got another letter from you _friend._ That's what, the third one this month?" I roll my eyes at Elena; she thinks that Bella and I are dating! She doesn't seem to mind that: **A.** I've sort of just broke up with my girlfriend, Vicky. Well she left town without telling me why and where she was going but I'm still hung up on her; **B.** There are about three or four day's worth of a car ride between Bella and I; and **C.** Most importantly, we are just really good friends and don't see each other in a romantic way.

"She's my friend. She's more like a little sister to me." I say as I snatch the letter from her, a little pissed off that she's started this again. Elena looks a little hurt but then hides it when a few seconds have passed.

"Sorry sis." I say a little ashamed, not of what I said but the way I said it. "I've known her for years. She's so much more than a friend and we love each other, just like you and Bonnie do." I know for a fact that Bonnie is like the sister she never had and that those two will always be friends. I don't think anything will tear them apart.

"She was there for me, for everything, even mom and dad's death, and I've been there for her." Elena sighs and nods her head.

"Okay, okay." Elena says and holds up her hands. "Stefan's coming to get me. We're going to the Grill, do you want to come?" I shake my head at her. I mean I really don't want to sit there a watch her and Stefan make out.

Stefan and Elena have been dating for four months. Stefan seems like a nice guy and keeps Elena happy but there's something weird about him. Then there's Stefan's brother, Damon, he's real strange and has the whole 'I'm dangerous' act and look about him.

Bonnie and Caroline, Elena's friends, really dislike him to the point of hating him.

I've seen him a few times around Elena, he hits on her but it's more to piss off Stefan than if he actually liked her that way.

I walk out, head to my room and open the letter.

_Hi Jeremy, _

_I have a surprise for you and you are going to love it! I'm so excited about it. You have to wait and see what it is, not too long, only week. Well January 8th, I can't wait._

_Love you,_

_Bella._

I shake my head at the letter and pick up my cell to call her.It only takes a few rings for her to answer.

"What's my surprise?" I say before she can say anything to me. I hear Bella chuckling.

"You got six days to wait." I pout at my cell.

"Oh come on, for someone that doesn't like surprises, you sure are being mean!"

"Jeremy, stop with the pouting, and suck it up and wait because I'm not telling you. And I love surprises; I just hate being kept in the dark." I roll my eyes at her.

"Yet here you are keeping me in the dark?" Again she chuckles down the phone.

"Yeah but this is a good thing and besides this is the most fun I've had in weeks." I let out a sigh at hearing just how happy she seems to be. Six weeks ago her father and his friend were out hunting an animal that had killed a few hikers. It attacked him and he died in the woods.

Bella was left an orphan just like Elena and I had been six months ago when our parents died in a car accident. Only instead of a big sister, she has a big brother, Sam. It's just them two now. Elena and I were lucky that we had Aunt Jenna to take us in. Thankfully Sam had just turned twenty-three and with Bella been seventeen, he became her legal guardian.

"Fine, I'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs till it arrives." I say in a mockingly hurt voice.

"What, don't sit there. Go out. Enjoy yourself before school starts again. Now, go play with your friends and we'll talk soon."

I walk over to my bed and pick up my jacket. "Love you, Bells."

"Love you too, Jeremy."

I hang up my cell, placing it in my pocket and make my way to Vicky's.

I can still remember my first day in first grade. My teacher told our class that we all will be given a friend from another school that had also started first grade and we were to write to them as often as we liked, it was supposed to help us with our writing and vocabulary. Bella and I got paired up, and when everyone in my class stopped writing to their pen pals when they left first grade, Bella and I decided to keep it up. We had found true friends in each other, and we couldn't let go.

I reach Vicky's house and just look at it. I wish I knew where she was or why she had left. I missed her. She was my first everything.

I let out a sigh and walk to the Grill. I walk in and see that Elena is sitting at a table nearby talking to Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline, Matt and that jerk, Tyler.

I move to the counter only to see that Damon is sitting there next to Mystic High's new History teacher Mr. Saltzman.

"What can I get for you?" I look up at the waitress and give her a little smile.

"Burger and a coke, please." She nods her head and walks away.

"You should try a real drink. It'll help loosen you up a little." I turn and look to Damon.

"Elena would freak out and when that happens, her voice get all high." Damon chuckles and smiles at me.

"But there in lays the fun." He says looking from me to the table she's sitting at.

Everything falls quiet and the waitress brings over my meal. I begin eating and can feel Damon's eyes on me.

"You're not going over to the Scooby gang's table?" I look at him and to their table, and shake my head at him.

"Nope, I'd rather not watch my sister make out with your brother, and then there's Tyler." I let out a sigh try to calm myself. "He and I don't get along."

Damon nods his head at me "Yeah, the whole Vicky thing." I don't look at him but feel the pain in my chest.

I go back to eating my meal and can faintly hear Damon and Mr. Saltzman talking. I can also feel them look at me every now and then.

"Jeremy, aren't you going to come and join us?" I turn to see Elena looking at me, worried, and then she goes to glare at Damon.

"No, I just wanted a quick bite to eat. I'm almost done." She pulls on my arm.

"Come on Jeremy, everyone wants to say hey." I look to the table and shake my head.

"I can't be that close to Tyler." Elena's face softens as she keeps looking at me. As she opens her mouth to talk, my cell rings and I take it out of my pocket to see that it's Bella.

"It's Bella." I say and she nods her head. I turn away to pick it up.

"Are you calling to tell me what my surprise is?" I say try to keep my voice light.

"Nope, I just called to talk. Sam had to go and check on something, so I'm home alone." I chuckle. Over the last six or so months Bella's been calling me, sounding all afraid.

"What movie did he make you watch this time?"

"We watched 'The Rise of the Lycans'." I shake my head.

"What's with you and all the wolf films?"

"There all was Sam's picks. I support the vampires." I smile, picking at the burger that's still half eaten on my plate.

"So you're not a fan of changing into werewolf then?"

"God no, I'm a big enough bitch when I'm PMSing, never mind changing into a hairy oversized dog. Nope, I'll be a vampire. That way it's not just once a month, it's all the time."

"Yeah but you pass out at the sight of blood." A chuckle to my side makes me look to see Damon laughing a little.

"It's the smell that makes me pass out." I look away from Damon and back down to my plate.

"The smell? Blood doesn't smell Bella. Oh wait, maybe you're already a vampire."

"Too bad, you already invited me into your home. I may come over one night to suck your blood." I chuckle shaking my head.

"Yeah more like bite, smell the blood and pass out."

"Ha ha, very funny, Jeremy."

"But really, if you were a vampire, how would you cope with blood if it makes you pass out? Then there's the whole killing thing. I mean vampires kill people."

"It their natural food source, they need it to survive, and besides I'm sure I could find a way."

"Well what if I was a werewolf, we couldn't be friends then."

"Why not?" I roll my eyes.

"Because werewolves and vampires are all time enemies, everyone knows that." I frown a little, as I can still feel Damon staring. He seems to be listening to what I'm saying.

"We won't be confined by what our nature tells us about each other. Just because our society tells us to be enemies doesn't mean we have to be. We are who we are, and just because you are werewolf and I'm a vampire doesn't change the fact that I love you and you are my best friend. The most important thing is that it seems to be a big rule and what better rule to break than a big one?" I smile at what she's saying. "Will you still be my friend if I ever did change into a vampire?"

"Only if you'll still be mine if I were werewolf."

"As long as you bathe and make sure you don't bring fleas with you, then yeah."

"What?" I chuckle out.

"Well if you were werewolf, you'll more than likely smell like a wet dog. Who wants that in their house?" A booming laugh makes me look at Damon who looks as if he about to fall on the floor laughing.

"Who's doing all the laughing?" Bella's voice brings me back to her call.

"That's Damon." I say lowly still looking at Damon.

"Oh, the sexy new bad boy of Mystic Falls." Damon looks at me with a smirk and I feel a little embarrassed. Thank god I'm not like Bella; if I were I would be seven shades of red right now.

"I never said that." I choke out.

"What, the sexy thing? No but his laugh sounds sexy and well by the way you described him..." I roll my eyes.

"I said he was tall, dark hair and had blue eyes." I grit out. I hear Bella chuckle.

"He's sitting right next to you?" I sigh and nod my head.

"Yeah, he is," I don't know how she does it or knows. She always seems to call if I 'm feeling down and within seconds she has me smiling."I miss you. You have to ask Sam about coming for Spring Break." I say a little sad that she's so far away.

"I will. I better go and do the boring home work that was assigned. Good night, Jeremy."

I smile, "good night, Bells."

"Jeremy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't go chasing any cats or cars, now." Bella says laughingly before hanging up. Of course she'd have some final comment on the werewolf thing.

As I put my cell away, I feel Damon's eyes are still on me, so I turn to him.

"That sounded like an interesting talk." I roll my eyes.

"We're just making small talk. Last week she got me into a debate over who would win in a fight, bigfoot or an alien." He look at me a little shocked before his eyes widened.

"Who won that?" I shake my head.

"No one, Sam took her cell away because it was two in the morning and he was trying to sleep." Damon chuckles.

"Now that friend, you should be hanging out with more." I nod my head at him.

"I would, but she lives in Washington." Damon frowns and nods his head.

"Is that who you went to see a few months back?"

I nod my head again "yeah, her father died. She came here when my parents died, so I wanted to be there for her." Damon nods his head. "She took it hard. Her mom died when she was eight, it's just her and her big brother Sam now." Damon nods his head again.

"Well this will be something. Later, Gilbert." Damon gets up and walks out of the grill, letting me get back to eating my burger.

The days pass and no matter how much I try, Bella didn't give me any clue to what my surprise was. My hands and eyes have been glued to my cell, waiting for her to call. It was so bad that Mr. Saltzman took it from me during class.

After school was done with, I was planning on going home and just chill till Bella called but Elena pulled me along with her and into the grill.

"Jeremy, I'm sure she'll call soon. Wow, you'd think you've never had a surprise before." I glare at her.

"Aw, what's wrong Jeremy, she still hasn't called?" I look up at Bonnie and shake my head.

It only takes a few minutes for the rest of Elena's friends and Damon to arrive.

"Guess what guys?" Caroline say in an upbeat tone. "Mom says there's a new deputy starting next week." I roll my eyes at how excited she seems to be over it. I look at my cell and let out a sigh.

"You know Gilbert, a watched pot never boils." I look at Damon and frown as I go to speak but my cell rings and I smile seeing that it's Bella.

"What took you so long?" I say as Elena frowns at me. I roll my eyes at Elena and listen to Bella laughing.

"I was busy. I'm sorry" Bella say after she settles.

"Alright I forgive you, now what is my surprise?" I say as play with a loose thread on my shirt.

"I'm not sure I should tell you. I mean you don't sound like you really want it. And you're going to rip the thread out of the shirt I bought you if you keep pulling at it." I stop pulling at the thread and tap the table with my fingers.

"Bella I have been bugging you every day for past six days, tell me!" I look up at the others at the table who seem to be watching and listening to me.

"Well if you do something to prove that you really want to know then I'll tell you." I nod my head.

"Glad you agreed, stand up and turn around three times." I sit where I am and just give it a few moments.

"Okay done." I say trying not to show any guilt for lying to her in my voice.

"Jeremy, you didn't do it. You're just stayed in your seat next to Elena" I sigh.

"Come on, Bella." I frown when I see Damon look around the grill.

"Well you must not want to know." I jump out and turn around three times.

"There, happy?" I can hear Bella laugh.

"Nope not yet, you need to say a few things out loud with your eyes closed."

"Fine." I say close my eyes.

"First is: Vampires are the best, so much better than wet dog smelling werewolves." I groan but say it anyway, I groan even more as I hear the others laugh.

"One last thing, I take it the guy who is sitting across from you is Damon?"

I frown. "Yeah?"

"You should tell him thank you for his advice but a watched pot does boil, it just feels like it takes longer as you're waiting for it."

I look to Damon and he's shaking his head at me.

"You should turn around," is all he says and I give him a 'what the hell' look and feel someone tap my shoulder which makes me turn around

"SURPRISE!" Bella yells as I look down.

"You're here." I say in to the cell only for Bella to nod her head.

"I'm going to hang up now." Bella says softy as I look at her still in shock but she takes my cell off me and closes it.

"So, no hug?" Bella says holding out her arms and pouts. I smile and hug her to me.

"What are you doing here? Tell me you haven't run away again." Bella shakes her head at me.

"No, Sam's working here now. There was a job opening at the police station." I hug her again know that she will be staying.

"You're not joking are you?" Bella shakes her head at me.

"Nope, with everything that went down with Charlie, Sam wanted a new start for us. He saw the job offer and not only were you here but Renee and his birth mom had a house here that they left to us. He took it as fate told us this was where we were supposed to be."

I look around for Sam but don't see him. Bella must have read my mind because she answers my unspoken question.

"He's meeting Sheriff-eh- Elizabeth Forbes." I nod my head at her.

"So you all moved in?" Bella nods her head at me.

"Yeah, the place had a lot of furniture so it was just our personal stuff we had to bring. I've been cleaning all day and was about to die from hunger so I came here, saw you arrive and thought I would have some fun." I shake my head at her as she looks away from me.

"Hey Elena," Bella gives Elena a light hug.

"Hello Bella," Bella smiles at her and look to the table.

"You're Caroline, the Sheriff's daughter right?" Caroline nods her head at her.

"And you're Bonnie; you're Matt and Tyler, if I remember right?" They all nod their heads at her. "So that mean you're Stefan and you're the bad boy of Mystic Falls, Damon." I smack Bella arm and glare at her but she just smirks back at me. "What?" I give her the look that moms give their kids when the said something weren't meant to.

"I'm sure he know he knows he's a very bad boy!" Bella blushes and I tilt my head try to work out why. She waves her hand at me to say 'not now'.

"I mean it takes skill and dedication to make that kind of rep. I'm sure he'll be pleased that it now speaks for itself and people know who he is without a word having been spoken." I roll my eyes and look at Damon, to see that he's just looking between Bella and me with a smirk.

"Okay later guys, we'll be over there talking." I say gripping Bella's arm and pulling her away as the rest chuckle and say a bye.

"I have to tell you, Damon doesn't look that much like a bad boy, he just needs a kitten or something." Bella says as I pull her down on a seat.

"Don't tell him that, he'll more than likely rip your head off just to prove he doesn't come with those kinds of feelings." Bella rolls her eyes at me. "So what was with the blush?" I ask her, only for her to blush again.

"I just had a passing thought that had the word spanking in it." I look at her and laugh. As we hear another faint chuckle, we both look over to see Damon chuckling and Stefan give him a 'don't you dare look'.

"That's a bit weird," Bella says as she looks at them.

I nod my head and start to make plans with Bella for that night and for school. I love that I have my best friend here with me. Looks like my life may be on the up and up.

**Damon POV**

I left the grill about an hour ago, and it was fun to sit there and chat up Elena just to see St. Stefan getting pissed off and jealous. It also helps that Elena did the whole 'stop it but I really enjoy the attention you're giving me' thing.

Truth be told at first she did hold my interest for a whole week, but that's just because she reminded me of Katherine. Then, as I got to know her, I knew that even if she looked like Katherine, Elena had almost the opposite kind personality as her. She's boring, a pure miss goody two shoes; basically no fun at all. I do care for the girl but as a friend. If Stefan wants her, he can have her, but it's fun to see him think that he could lose her to me. But really, I would never take her from him and it's also another reason why I care about her. As much as I hate Stefan for what he'd done before and after our deaths, he's still my little brother and I will always love him.

The only fun part of the day was meeting Jeremy's little friend, Isabella, or as she calls herself, Bella. Now that girl looks as if she knows what fun is. She must be five two, with long curly brown hair that sit in the middle of her back and her eyes are a deep chocolate brown. She has more curves than what Elena has which gives her more of a woman's body than a young girl's. She's pretty in her own way, I would even say beautiful but you really have to look at her to see it.

Elena and Katherine had the type of beauty that you see straight away and have every guy drop to their knees just to spend time with them.

When Jeremy dragged Isabella off to another table to sit at, Stefan and Elena were on my ass like white on rice. They told me that I had to stay away from her. They brought the whole 'you put Jeremy through enough with what you had done to Vicky' thing up.

They both gave me the look to say 'we know you don't care but for once in your life don't be selfish and think of others.' Then, my most favourite one was from Stefan, 'I thought you cared about Elena, how can you put her through seeing her brother hurt like that again'. I mean really, he's on my ass about the fact 'I like her' but then uses it to get me to do something when it helps him? And I'm meant to be the bad brother.

When I left the grill, I changed into my crow form and have just been flying around since then. It doesn't take me long to find both Jeremy and Isabella sitting outside of what must be her house. I fly down and sit on the tree near them.

"I wish she told me she was going, I could have gone with her." Jeremy says, the pain in his voice tells me that he's talking about Vicky. He was head over heels for her; shame she didn't feel that way about him. She did feel something for him but it wasn't completely love.

I do feel bad sometimes for what I've done. Looking at him, makes me remember my younger self, trying to work out who I was then. He shows his love for Vicky the same way I did for Katherine. It's also the reason I try not to spend any amount of time with him, as he also shows me that maybe like Vicky's feelings for him, Katherine feelings for me were slimmer than that.

"Jeremy, she would've known that you would've missed Elena, and you still have school. I'm really sorry she hurt you but just maybe she wanted to sort herself out. You know, stop the drugs and stuff." Jeremy lets out a sigh and places his head on Bella's shoulder.

"I could've helped her, been there for her. She doesn't need to do this by herself." I see Bella frown and think for a few seconds.

"Sometimes we need to do things by ourselves and for ourselves. With you being there, she may not have been able to do everything she had to do. The road to recovery is hard; sometimes people are waiting for you to fail while others expect more from you than what you can give. Her being on her own means that she only has to do want she needs to do for her to be happy with herself." I tilt my head a little. "Because when you're truly happy with whom you are and what you are, then the people that are meant to be in your life will be happy with it too." This girl seems to be far older in her head that what she appears to be physically, I would even say she had a more adult look then a lot of adults do.

"We should do something fun, maybe get back at that teacher who took your cell from you." Jeremy sits up looking at her.

"You haven't even been in school yet and you already want to prank the teachers?" I smirk, knowing that I'm right; this girl's going to bring a little fun here.

"Hell yeah, I also think that I should arrive late, you know so they don't expect me to be there on time, all the time." I chuckle but sound more like a caw. Isabella and Jeremy both look my way.

"Wow that is one loud crow." Jeremy says.

"Bella, it's getting late." I look to the new person that has popped out of the house. This guy is big, very big, at least six four or six five, and he was well built.

"Hey Sam." Jeremy says give him a wave.

"Hey Jeremy, and Bella you will be on time on your first day even if I have to drag you to class." Isabella chuckles and Jeremy looks between them.

"Oh my god, he got your mom's ears." Isabella nods her head at him.

"Yup and the eyes too, but don't worry he still knows the meaning of the word fun."

Jeremy shakes his head. "I better go and let you get to bed. Night Bells, Sam." Jeremy jumps down the porch and waves.

"Love you, Jeremy!" Isabella yell after him and looks to me.

"Good night, Mr. Noisy Crow."

I sit outside for a little while longer, then head home once the house went quiet.

"Where have you been Damon?" I sigh as I walk in and pour myself a drink.

"I was out, dad." I sit on my leather chair and look at Stefan. "Where is Elena, aren't you two normally banging each other by now?" Stefan gives me his disgusted look.

"Not that it's any of your business but Elena and I make love, we do not 'bang' each other. Where were you?"

I roll my eyes at him, "as I said dad, I was out." Stefan closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his noise.

"Leave the new girl alone, she's been a friend of Jeremy's for years. He's been through enough and so has she. According to Elena she just lost her dad and his old friends blame Bella for his death." I tilt my head looking at him.

"It was an animal attack, how could it have been her fault?" Stefan shakes his head.

"I don't know, she only heard a little of her Aunt's and Bella's brother's, talk." I nod my head at him.

"Goodnight, Stefan." I say walk out.

"Damon, I want you to promise me-" I slam my door shut as Stefan keeps going on.

The next morning I get up early and head over to the school, as soon as I arrive Elena spots me, rolls her eyes, lets out a huff and walks to me.

"What are you doing here?" I give her my smile but she just keeps looking at me.

"I was passing by, so I thought I would drop in and see what the kids are learning these days."

"Not much, same boring stuff that we'll never need to use once we leave. But I can say I'm glad I only have to do this once. I would hate to repeat high school over and over, for years." Elena and I both turn, and see Isabella smile at us. I'm a little surprised as I never heard her approach.

"Yes, well I'm glad my high school years are over." Bella nods her head at me.

"Elena do you know were Jeremy is? I thought I could talk him in to coming to the office with me. Sam made me promise that I wouldn't get lost, and if I go by myself I know I will." Elena chuckles a little.

"He's at practice, I'll take you." I watch Isabella's face fall a little. She doesn't seem overly happy to go with Elena.

"Elena, can you come here for a second." Elena turns and looks to Bonnie and Caroline who are glaring at me.

"Give me one second to deal with this and I'll go with you." Isabella nods her head at her and Elena walks off.

"So, first day?" Bella turn and looks at me.

"Yup." I watch her as she looks around herself.

"You don't seem happy to be here." She turns to look back at me, shaking her head.

"It's the whole new kid thing that I'm not looking forward to. Then there's every class where the teachers want you to tell everyone about yourself." Isabella sounds like she about to take herself to be scarified.

"It won't be that bad." I say in a bored tone.

"It will be even worse in the classes that Jeremy's not in." I give her a 'hmm' this time, and she look at her watch.

"Well I better get going to find the office; Elena more than likely got caught up with school gossip and stuff." She doesn't wait for me to say anything to her as she walks away, heading into the school. I shake my head and move quickly to catch up to her. I manage to reach her and open the school door for her.

"After you." I say and Isabella just laughs at me.

"What?" I ask as I walk in after her.

"The whole gentleman thing doesn't suit you, stick to the bad boy stuff unless you really mean to be good." I look at her from the side of my eye.

"You've only known me for a few minutes, how do you know what I'm like.?" I say a little pissed. She's trying to sound as if she knows me. Isabella stops and looks at me.

"I'm sorry, that was a little rude, just-" She frowns a little and looks as if she is searching for the right word to use. "Someone sort of told me about you, but I really shouldn't talk like I know you." I frown and look at her.

"Jeremy, told you about me." She shakes her head no.

"No, not Jeremy, someone else. But don't worry, it wasn't all bad, and well it sort made me want to meet you." Isabella winks at me and then walks into the office.

I watch her from outside the office and try to think of who she could have spoken to that would've told her about me. I shake my head and chuckle, walking away. The list is endless; any number of people more than likely told a new young thing like her to stay away from the big bad Salvatore brother.

I head home feeling a little strange. I feel more relaxed and excited for the first time in over a century.

**Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you too blueguju and ArabellaWhitlock for beta and prove reading this for me.**

Chapter 2

Jeremy's POV

I frown at having not found Bella yet this morning. Elena had told me that Bella was in the parking lot waiting for her and that she needed to go the office, but after Bonnie and Caroline had called Elena over to them to go through the last few details of the upcoming dance, Bella was gone by the time she turned around.

Bonnie then grumbled something about Damon being there. I called her but her cell was off.

I walk into Mr. Saltzman just after the late bell.

"Mr. Gilbert, please try to be on time for class." I look at him and give a little nod before taking my seat.

"We are having a look at the American Civil War." He turns and writes it up on the board.

"Does anyone know anything about this war?" We all mumble and Mr. Saltzman chuckles at us.

"Let's start with something easy, who was fighting in it?" As he glances around the room, there is a knock on his door.

"Come in," Mr Saltzman calls as he makes his way to the door.

"Hi, I'm Bella. I think I am in your class?" I smile seeing Bella only poke some of her body into the room, holding out a sheet of paper.

"Ah, yes. Come in Miss Swan." Bella glares at him and walks in.

"Just call me Bella." He looks at her and nods his head a little.

"How about you tell the class a little about yourself?"

I hold back my chuckle when Bella rolls her eyes. "Hi, I am Bella Swan, I moved here with my brother Sam." Bella smile at him and then walks away.

"So is that all you are going to tells us?" Mr. Saltzman asks as he grins at her.

"Well, would you like me to add that I killed the last person that tried to get me to talk about myself?" She takes the seat next to mine and looks at me. "True story, I'll tell you all about it someday." I raise my eyebrow at her and nod my head.

"Okay, well welcome Miss Swan."

"It's BELLA. Please don't call me Miss Swan." I watch as Mr Saltzman shakes his head. It is well known that he allows the senior students to call him by his name and he calls them all by their first names too. He said that he feels that by doing this it will help them when they leave and head to college. However no other year has called him by his name or him by their first name.

"Okay Bella. Welcome to my class." I watch Bella's face from the corner of my eye. I rub her arm when she smiles large at hearing her name.

Each class pretty much goes like the first for Bella with them all asking her to tell everyone about herself. It got funny when she gave herself stupid names and started to tell people that she was a mermaid that was cursed by an evil sea hag.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" I ask as we head home.

She lets out a sigh. "It'll be Sam talking with his kind of ex-girlfriend over Skype. More like they will spend five minutes talking and then they'll start teasing each other, which will lead to them havin over Skype." I chuckle as she spells out the word sex.

"You know that you're seventeen, you can say sex." Bella glares at me.

"So do you think Stefan and Elena are having sex? Do you think they have sex every time they see each other?" I frown and glare back at her not wanting to think o and my sister in the same sentences.

"Sam's my brother okay? It makes it weird. Anyway, I will be hiding out tonight. I really don't what to hear anyone get some, let alone my own brother." I nod my head at her.

"Aunt Jenna is out at the college tonight, do want to come to my house and have dinner?" She looks at me with a smirk on her face.

"Sure, as long as I'm in charge of the kitchen." I nod my head, knowing she make the best of food ever.

"Sam!" Bella yells as she heads into the house.

"Bella, I'm not deaf. Stop with the yelling." Bella rolls her eyes at him.

"Hey Sam," I said, waving at him.

"Jeremy asked me to do homework at his house, so I thought I could make dinner there too. You know, give you time alone to talk with the Princess." Sam blushes a little before looking at her.

"You need to stop calling her that, or she will rip your head off, friend or no friend." Bella rolls her eyes at him. "Besides I think she'd like to talk to you too." This time Bella shakes her head.

"Come on Bella I know you're mad at her but I have forgiven her, you should too." Again Bella just shakes her head at him.

"I have-I will but – tell her I'll call her later." Sam gives her a little nod and smiles at her.

"Have fun and remember to do homework too. Be home by eleven." Bella smiles at him and gives him wave as she pulls me out of the house.

Once we're back in the car I question her. "You don't get along with Sam's girlfriend?" Bella rolls her eyes but keeps them on the road too.

"Yes and no. I know more about her than I really wanted to know. She's a good person, a little hard to tell at time but she is. She helped me with my breakup with Edward and some other stuff. She knew how I felt about Sam and how important he is to me. She knew that he was going through his own break up with Leah, and Leah went out with his best friend Paul. I will give them the benefit of the doubt because they told him how they felt before anything happened but still. Princess knew that he felt a lot more for her and she brought him back out to who he was. I trusted her! I can't just forgive the fact that she left him, me- us when we needed her the most."

I frown looking at Bella. I can hear the hurt in her voice loud and clear. I squeeze her arm, and she turns and smiles at me.

"Come on, let's go shopping for dinner," Bella said as she stops the car outside of the town's small supermarket.

It takes Bella over an hour to get everything she wants from the supermarket. She's really picky when it comes to the food she buys.

When we get back to my house, we walk straight into the kitchen and I show Bella where everything is then leave her to it, knowing that I'll only get in her way. She pretty much enjoys cooking on her own.

"Hey Jeremy, what are you up to tonight?" I look up seeing Elena and Stefan.

"Just hanging here with Bella, she's in the kitchen making dinner for us." I say before turning back to my game.

"What? No! Stefan's cooking for us, Bonnie, Matt, Tyler and Caroline. It's movie night tonight." I look at her as she whines like a two year old and see that Stefan is rubbing her shoulders.

"Well we were here first, and I'm sure Stefan can cook after she's done in the kitchen."

"Look, can't she cook in her own house? I've been having a real hard month and I was really looking forward to having just one night." I look at her and she shakes her head at me.

"I can cook enough for everyone." I turn to see that Bella has come in.

"Stefan was going to make something special for me." Elena looks into Stefan's eyes lovingly.

"Yeah, really special." Damon says with a chuckle, Elena turns and glares at him.

"Why are you here?" Elena asks as she cross her arms.

"I wanted to join you for move night, you invited me remember?" Damon asks as he walks in and takes a seat.

"But I was only being polite, I didn't really mean it." Damon looks at her and smirks.

"Well you shouldn't have asked me then. Hey Tink, when's dinner ready? I'm starving and I really don't know if I can stop myself for sinking my teeth into something." Bella looks at him with her head tilted.

"Tink? Well, knowing you that could be worse. Dinner will be ready in about forty minutes." He nods his head at her and starts to play my game.

"Get rid of him, and I'll talk to Aunt Jenna about getting the kitchen." Elena says as she kisses Stefan before leaving.

"What's up with her?" I say not really asking anyone.

"Stefan hasn't-"

"Enough Damon!" Stefan yells before Damon can finish what he was saying.

"Sorry Elena, Jeremy got the kitchen. You just need to share." I smile at Aunt Jenna as she waves, leaving to go to the college.

"We should cancel tonight. It's just going to be one big fail. I really needed tonight, just wanted some fun." Elena says as Stefan wraps her in his arms.

"It will be, I promise. Bella what are you making?"

"Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce, I'm just about to cut the pasta for that now."

Damon stands up quickly and looks at Bella. "You make your own pasta?" Bella nods her head at him.

"Yes, I always make it. I had made some up yesterday, so I collected that before coming here." Damon smiles at her.

"This, I need to check out." Before anyone can say anything, he has rolled up his sleeves and is walking into the kitchen with Bella groaning behind him.

"Jeremy, don't you think you should make sure Bella's alright? I mean that's Damon. I don't really want my friends around him." I give her a puzzled look.

"I thought you two were trying to be friends?" I ask as Stefan sighs.

"I am but I know him! And just because we're friends doesn't mean that I have to trust him with my friends, I'm just being smart." Elena says as she tries to look in the kitchen.

"Just check on her Jeremy." Elena says as she looks back at me.

"Bella would throw him out if he was pissing her off, but I'll check if it makes you happy." I say before making my way to the kitchen.

"I'm Italian, it's in my blood." Damon says.

"Just because you have Italian blood doesn't mean you know how to cook it!" I chuckle at the tone Bella uses with Damon.

Damon moves in front of Bella and lets out a huff before bending down even more to look into her eyes.

"You want me to help you. You love my cooking because I am awesome."

"Yes, Damon I love your cooking because I am awesome." Damon glares at her a little. "And I would like you even more if you would get out and leave me to cook in peace."

Damon leans forward into Bella, placing each of his hands at her side and grips the counter behind Bella.

"Did you just sniff me?" Bella asks in a stunned tone. As Damon's hands tighten on the counter, I go to move forward just in case.

"I need to get the pasta on, think you can finish up the Bolognese sauce? It just needs some heat, so there's no chance of you screwing it up." Bella says as she ducks under Damon's arm and moves away from him.

"Screw it up? More like make it better." I shake my head as they keep bickering at each other. I walk back into the living room to see that Bonnie is sitting next to Elena now, and Stefan is on her other side. Matt is on one of the chairs, and Caroline and Tyler are sitting other the other ones. Leaving the love seat for Damon, Bella and I to sit on.

"I got a feeling that I should leave them to it." I say as I sit down.

I hear Stefan chuckle but Elena just huffs and rolls her eyes.

"Who invited him anyway?" Bonnie asks as she looks at everyone.

"I did." Elena says in a small voice.

"What? Why?" Caroline shouts.

"Because I was talking about it to Stefan, and Damon overheard. I didn't think he would come." Bonnie rubs Elena arm.

"You can't save everyone Elena, he's no good." I frown a little as no one seems to be sticking up for him, not even Stefan. Sure, I know Damon has some problems, but don't we all?

"We can't trust him." Elena adds in a quiet voice. I myself was not on a good path after my parents died. I took a lot of drugs and drank till I couldn't feel anything. If Elena and Bella had given up on me, I know that I would've kept going down that same path. I do wonder if she would've felt like that about me?

"Bella has always told me about trust. She told me that the best way to make a man trust worthy is to trust him." They all look at me as if I've grown a second head.

"And never judge a person till you have walked a mile in their shoes and felt what they feel." Bella adds as she hugs me over the seat.

"Dinner's ready and Damon is setting the table." Bella steps back and walks into the kitchen again. I get up and follow her. Damon looks at me, gives me a funny smile and a little nod. I look to Bella as if to ask what that was about but she just winks at me.

We all sit down and we seem to fall into a boy-girl-boy-girl seating. It's me, Bella, Damon, Caroline, Tyler, Bonnie, Stefan, Elena and then back to me.

"Oh wow, Bella, this is really good." Caroline says as she takes a larger amount. There are mumbles of agreement.

"Where did you learn to cook this?" Stefan asks as he looks to Bella.

"I met someone that was from Italy and they sort of shared their passion of cooking with me, which just added to my own."

Stefan nods his head. "You're from Forks right?" Bella nods her head.

"Did you enjoy your first day at school?" Again Bella nods her head.

"It was school, pretty much like my last one." Bella says before looking at Damon. "What do you do Damon? I mean do you have a job or are you a man of leisure?"

Damon smirks at her. "Oh, I keep myself busy with this and that. But I'm keeping really busy and having some fun as I help the Town Council with the animal attacks." Bella freezes for a second and closes her eyes. I tap her leg and she looks at me, and I can clearly see the pain in her eyes.

Stefan clears his throat. "Bella, Elena told us about your dad, we're sorry for you loss." Stefan says as he looks at Damon with shame.

"Uh, thanks Stefan but really it's okay." Bella goes back to eating her dinner.

"Did you leave a handsome guy back in Forks?" Caroline asks with a smile.

Bella shake her head. "No, I dated a guy but we broke up well before I came here. So Elena, how long have you been with Stefan?" Bella ask as she tries to get the topic away from her.

"About four months or so." Elena says as she smiles at Stefan but her eyes flicker to Damon for a few seconds, and she gives him one of her shy smiles.

I look to Bella who has also caught what Elena did and she rolls her eyes.

"What do you like doing in your spare time?" Stefan asks and I hear Bella groan a little over the fact they are still asking her questions.

"I enjoy reading all kinds of books, drawing, cooking, having fun and quite recently I have begun to enjoy dancing. Look Stefan, I know you're just trying to be a nice guy, but I don't enjoy talking about myself so can we move the topic onto something else?"

Stefan nods his head at her. They all seem to fall into talking about what happened at Mystic Falls High, with Damon adding a comment now and then.

"Still can't believe she's dating a guy ten years older than her." Caroline says as she shakes her head.

"Yeah he really robbing the cradle, don't you think Stefan?" Damon asks with a smirk to Stefan, as Stefan glares at him again, which is pretty much what he's been doing all night.

"Age is a number." Elena says in her bitchy tone

"Shit, I was sure that it was a word," Bella said straight away which makes Damon and me both chuckle at Elena, Caroline and Bonnie's confused faces.

"What, I don't get it." Caroline says as she scratches her head.

"Well Blondie, I believe Tink was saying that age is not a number but a word. You know by the fact that it has letter in it."

Caroline just rolls her eyes. "Okay well this has been fun, but I better get home," Bella says as she stands up.

"I'll walk you out." I grab her jacket and walk her to the front door.

"Sorry about tonight," I said knowing that she was uncomfortable half the night.

Bella shrugs her shoulders. "It wasn't all bad, see you tomorrow." She gives me a hug and waves as she starts to walk away.

"Love you!" She yells from half way down the street.

"Love you too!" I yell back.

"Jeremy, stop yelling." I turn seeing that Aunt Jenna is back.

"Sorry." I say sheepishly and she smiles, shaking her head at me.

"It's good to see you smile again Jeremy." Jenna says as she cups my faces.

"It feels good to smile again." She nods her head and walks into the house.

"Night Gilbert." I jump a little and spin around to see Damon walking down the street; only he's not walking the way he would need to get his home but the same way Bella went.

**Damon's POV**

As soon as I hear Jeremy going back inside, I speed down the road to catch up with Bella. During our time cooking, I tried to compel her a few times but each time it didn't work. When I smelled her, I could not smell any vervain on or in her. I did however find that she smelled amazing and I wanted to have her on the counter as I drank from her. I had to hold myself in place as I felt like I had no control in that moment.

Never in my life had I ever felt that desire before, to let go completely and be with someone as me, the real me.

Then when I heard the others talking about me, I felt pissed off but Jeremy shocked me by how he stood up for me but also by what he said. Out of everyone in that room, he has the most reason to hate me, even if he doesn't remember it.

When I looked at Bella she seemed a little sad and if I didn't know any better, I would've said that she too heard what was being said. The dinner went by quickly with St. Stefan and the Scooby gang giving Bella the Spanish Inquisition. A small part of me could understand that Stefan was worried; there had been so many people that are out to get Elena that he doesn't trust anyone near her. Though, at the same time I felt sorry for Bella because as they asked more questions, you could see her becoming more drawn and uncomfortable.

"Well hello, Tink." Bella looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I'm a little shocked that she doesn't seem surprised to see me.

"Damon." She replies back to me and then looks forward.

I keep walking by her side, waiting for her to talk to me again. After a few minutes, I know that I'm going to have to be the one to talk.

"You never told me who it was that talked to you about me." Bella chuckles a little.

"You never asked me, besides it wasn't all bad. Some of it was really good." I shake my head at her.

"Really? That's weird because I'm a dick." Bella chuckles and nods her head.

"Yeah, I got that memo too." I nod my head at her. "Well, thanks for walking with me." I look to see that we've reached her home.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Bella looks at me over her shoulder and shakes her head a little.

"Nope, you seem like the type that once I've invited you in, I wouldn't be able to get rid of you. Besides, I'll need to get to know you more-well more to the point; you'll have to get to know me." I give her a little look and bend down so I can see into her eyes. As I look at them, I see that they are more so open than any other person I have seen but there is something there, something behind her eyes. I'm not sure what but she's not hiding the fact that it's there from me.

"Good night Tink." I say as I step back from her.

I make my way home, picking up something to drink first. I walk into the house to the sound of Elena coming scream my brother name. Hmm maybe I should by him a gag as a gift; I wonder if Elena is the type that likes to be gagged and spanked? I chuckle to myself shaking my head, knowing that that's not Elena; she doesn't know how to have fun without judgment.

"Hello brother, you really know how to show a girl a good time. Have you and Matt compared notes yet? You know how loud you got her, how many times you made her come?"

"Damon can you stop being a dick for a few moments, so we can talk about what we going to do?" I chuckle at him.

"Well as I'm pretty much always a dick, it'll be hard but I'll try."

Stefan pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. "Elena's worried about Jeremy and Bella. She doesn't want them to find out about the supernatural world and you trying to make Bella your next sex toy will only lead to that. Plus, she thinks that Jeremy may have become attached to you for some unknown reason because he's starting to look up to you." Stefan makes it sound as if Jeremy looking up to me is the worst thing that could happen.

"Maybe I want a friend, and Jeremy and Bella seem like my kind of friends." A small laugh makes us turn our head to see Elena.

"Damon, I'm your friend and I am asking you to stay away from my brother. I'm grateful for you taking away his memories but if you didn't kill Vicky, then it wouldn't have been needed. He needs stability in his life not some drinking partner. As for Bella, the second she finds out what you are, she will run Damon. I don't want her hurt when she upsets you, or you hurt her when she can't be with you, knowing about what you are and what you've done." I pour my drink then grab the bottle and glass leaving Judge Judy and St. Stefan behind as they call me back.

I walk into my room place the bottle and glass by my bed, and start to get undressed. "Damon I want your word that you will stay away." Elena demands as she enters my room.

"Nope, I have no plan to make that promise as I plan to make them my new best friends." I say as I raise my eyebrows at her. She huffs but stays in front of me with her arms crossed over her small chest.

I start taking off my pants. "Damon, I'm still in the room." I give her one of my looks.

"Well this is my room; you came into it without knocking, and you're the one staying for the show. What is it Elena, you want to see what a real dick looks like?" Stefan walks into my room, grabs a hold of Elena's arm and drags her back out.

"I want him to promise me that he will stay away!" I close my eyes and block out Elena and Stefan talking. I walk over to my drink and down it; knowing that even through Elena was being a stone cold bitch, what she said was right. Well not about Jeremy, he has Gilbert blood in him, which more likely means he will run towards open danger but Bella will run, far, far away from me. The thing that's really bugging me and I'm not sure why, but I don't want her to.

I have a restless night and head outside before Miss Moody and Hero Hair get up. I walk about but faint footfalls make me change my direction. When I finally find them, I chuckle and shake my head as I see Bella a little bit in front of me with her headphones in, running. I move quickly near her before falling into a little jog to match hers.

"Good morning, Damon." I frown at her a little because first, she heard me even over her headphones and second, she didn't even turn to look at me.

"Now, how did you know it was me?" Bella looks at me from the corner of her eye and take off her headphones.

"I would tell you but then I would have to kill you." I chuckle at her.

"But you want me to know." I say looking deep into her eyes.

"No, I don't. I mean a girl's got to have some mystery about her." She looks me up and down and frowns.

"Do you jog in this normally?" I smirk at her.

"I don't jog, Tink." Bella start to walk and I walk beside her.

"So why were you today? That is unless you're stalking me. If you are, I'm okay with the whole stalking thing, just don't watch me sleep because that's kind of creepy." I nod my head at her.

"I'll remember that but I can't stalk you if you know I'm there. Where's the fun in that?" Bella laughs and heads into the grill.

"You could just not walk behind me when someone's carrying a mirror in front of me." I tilt my head and she points to the side of the bar where there is a mirror. I turn and look out the window seeing a van sitting there.

"They were carrying it in when I saw you jog up behind me." I shake my head and chuckle a little.

"Hi, can I get the house breakfast plate?" Bella stops and looks at me. "Would you like breakfast? I'm eating here and taking one out for Sam."

"Two breakfast plates for here and one to go, we'll have everything." I say to the waitress who smiles at me, I give her my smirk and a wink, and she walks away with our order.

"I'm not really sure it was wise to flirt with the waitress when she's about to cook our food. She'll more than likely burn the place down as she daydreams about all the things she wants you to do to her." I look to Bella then to the kitchen and listen closely but thankfully there is a guy in there that is in charge of the cooking.

"We'll be alright, she's just the waitress, no cooking involved." I sit down at the bar on my usual seat and Bella takes the one next to mine.

"How are you really enjoying school?" I ask, finding that I really want to know the answer.

"I can't really answer the question without it leading to more, but I will say I used to enjoy it a lot more. But so much has happened in the past two years that have really took the enjoyment away from it. Now I'm looking forward to it ending and being free from it." I frown then chuckle as she is right. I just want to ask more questions to why she feels like this.

"Does this have to do with that damn ex of yours?" I ask, remembering she briefly said she had a boyfriend.

She shakes her head but then sighs. "Kind of, in a directly indirect way." Looking at her confused not really sure what to make of what she says.

"Here's your breakfast." The waitress says as she sits our plates down. "I forgot to ask, what would you like to drink?" I look to Bella silently saying she should go first.

"Organ juice, please." I nod my head at her.

"Make that two." The waitress keeps her eyes on mine for a few seconds before walking away.

"Well I think you've got an in with her, you know if you're looking for no challenge and an easy lay. You should call her up." I frown when Bella's face becomes red and she slaps her hand over her mouth.

"Please, forget what I just said, had a bitch moment there." I lean back and grin at her.

"It's true but-" Bella shakes her head at me.

"It doesn't matter; I don't know her, there for I shouldn't have commented on her behaviour towards you. Besides I'm pretty sure you could get mother Teresa to fall for your charm."

"Here are your drinks, and your breakfast to go will be ready for you when you're ready to leave." I look deep into the waitress' eyes.

"Thank you; we call you if we need anything. The tables over there look like they need to be cleaned." She nods her head at me and walks away.

I turn and look to Bella who has begun eating her breakfast.

"So, what made you come here to Mystic Falls?" Bella looks at me and then looks deep in thought.

"Well, Edward he was my ex, broke up a few days after my sixteenth birthday. We had been dating for almost ten months and it wasn't easy for us. We had our share of problems, one recurring one that end- well _he_ chose to end our relationship. He and his family moved that day, but he was the only one to say goodbye to me. I wasn't meant to be a part of their family. However our recurring problem stayed pretty much in my life. It got to a point where I couldn't even have a month without something happen. I had no choice but to tell Charlie, that's my dad, everything. Something happened that changed me more than anything else. Then Charlie died in the forest in his best friend's arms in the middle of hunting. His friends blame me, hell I blamed me. I put so much on his plate and he found out the thing that he never should have found out only to end up paying the price for it. At his will reading we found out that Samantha, Sam's biological mom, and her sister, Renee, my mom, had a house here. Sam knew this was where Jeremy was and there was a job opening at the station so it just seemed like this was where we were meant to go." I look at her, knowing there was a lot she left out.

"So Sam is your adopted brother then?" Bella nods her head.

"Yes, our moms were sisters and our fathers were the best of friends. When Sam's parents died, they had assigned my parents as his legal guardians. He was there before I was born, so he's always just been my brother."

"What your mom's family name?" I ask, a little curious. I needed to know if her family is connected to the founding families.

"Johnston, my mom's great grandmother was the sister to the Charles Johnston." I look at her and swallow a little, knowing who she's speaking of. "My mom never told me about her hometown but after Charlie died I found some journals of hers, dating back to her being around eight."

I look at her, unsure if she knows more than she's letting on. "They must be interesting reading." Bella shakes her head.

"No, not really. She was just the average teenager with the same problems as most people had." Bella seems to have a smile on her face; almost as if she was glad about the fact her mom had an average life.

"What about you Bella, how would your journals read?" Bella looks at her watch and waves to the waitress.

"If I kept journals, which I don't, then they would take me away to the nearest nut house." I tilt my head at her a little. "I have a very big imagination."

The waitress sits down Bella's to-go breakfast and the bill. Before I can do anything, Bella is handing over money to her.

"Well, thank you for having breakfast with me but I need to go or I'll be late for school, and I promised Sam that I would be on time this week."

I follow Bella out and watch her jog down the road, a little more intrigued by her.

**Thank you for reading hope you enjoyed, leave a review tell me you thoughts. Who do you think Sam girlfriend 'Princess' is? What do think of Bella and Jeremy? **


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to blueguju and ArabellaWhitlock for beta and prove reading this for me.**

Jeremy's POV

The week seems to have flown by with Bella being here. Bella is now fully settled in here at Mystic Falls High but is quickly getting pissed at the fact that she's been asked so many times by most of the guys for the upcoming dance next week. Her brother Sam has started his job at the police station three days ago; some of the teens have been trying to give him the run around and a hard time. So far everything they have planned has failed.

"So how do I look?" I turn around to look at Aunt Jenna, and give her a smile and thumbs up.

"You look great, so are you not going to tell me who the hot date's with?" I watch as she blushes a little, shaking her head.

"No, not just yet." I frown at her but she just shakes her head at me.

"This is a small town, I'll find out sooner or later." I tell her and she gives me a look to say she knows I'm right.

"If it goes well tonight, I'll tell you and Elena tomorrow. Okay?" I nod my head at her, silently agreeing.

"Okay, I better go. Elena's staying at Stefan's tonight. She wanted that bag dropped off tonight, could you do it for me?" Aunt Jenna says as she walks to the door. I roll my eyes because that's where Elena pretty much seems to stay. I'm starting to think she moved out without telling anyone.

"Yes, I'll drop it off. Have a good time and remember to be good, no drinking and driving, and be home before twelve." Aunt Jenna chuckles and shakes her head a little before walking out the door.

About five minutes later Bella arrives at the door. "Ready to go?" I nod my head at her and pick up Elena's bag.

"I just need to drop this off for Elena; she's staying at Stefan's again." Bella nods her head and walks to my car.

"So I get to see the Salvatore house?" I nod my head at her knowing she's been dying to find a reason to go, just so she can see it.

"Wow." Bella says, and then continues to mutter something that I didn't catch.

I get out of the car and Bella follows me to the door. As I go to knock on the door, it's opened by Damon.

"Well hello Tink." He says grinning at Bella. "Gilbert." He says my name but keeps his eyes on Bella.

"Come on in." He moves out of the way and opens the door. I walk in first with Bella close behind me. I turn and look to see that Damon has put his arm around Bella's shoulder and pulls her closer to him. We walk towards the main sitting room, and I see Bonnie and Caroline sitting across from Elena and Stefan. They all seem to be in a deep conversion which stops as soon as I enter. Elena turns to look at me and smiles, then her eyes shift to Damon with Bella, suddenly glaring at them. I'm not sure if the glare was at Bella or Damon.

"Aunt Jenna asked me to drop your bag off." I say as I place it down next to her.

"Thanks Jeremy, so where are you and Bella off to?" Before I can say anything Damon is talking as he walks past me.

"Take a seat Gilbert." He sits on the seat near the fire and looks at Bella.

"I have a seat right here for you Tink." He says patting his lap. Bella just looks down at his lap then to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I think you would enjoy that more than me." Damon smirks at her.

"Oh, you would enjoy it Tink. So, so much." I think everyone in the room picked up on what Damon was talking about. I clear my throat and look to Bella who seems to be amused more than anything else but I can still see the faint blush on her.

"We, Bella and I, are planning on going to a party." Elena looks at Damon as I talk, in fact I don't think her eyes have left Damon and Bella from when they walked into the room.

"Elena?" I say when she doesn't respond to me.

"Bella, I hear Matt's planning on asking you to the dance." Elena says in a rather bitchy tone.

Bella turns to look at her in shock.

"He is? Shit! You're his friend, talk him out of it." Bella says looking between Elena and me.

"What? Are you kidding? Matt is the hottest guy at Mystic Falls High." Elena says and she puts on a fake smile.

Bella tilts her head. "You mean besides your boyfriend, who I will add is in the room." Bella says as she points to Stefan almost implying that Elena forgot about him.

"Reason one as to why I don't want to date the quarterback is he is in fact a quarterback and I have been made to try out for cheerleading. I always say hell no to high school cliques." Bella rolls her eyes at me.

"Two, I don't like him that much, he's kind of...blah." I look around the room to see that everyone's just looking at Bella.

"Three, I'm done with high school boys. I'd much rather have a man, you know one that's not afraid to go after what he wants." Damon chuckles as Bella looks to he give him a disapproving look before turning back to Elena.

"Four, you dated him, that's like the sisterhoods number one rule, you know? Also, don't kiss, flirt, or date your ex-boyfriend's _brother_." I gulp as I clearly hear Bella's tone when she said brother. I look around the room to see that everyone is just looking at Bella with open mouths. "There is a lot more on the list, would you like me to keep going?"

Elena shakes her head at her. "No, but he's a great guy. He really is the best of boyfriends, you're really missing out." Elena says as she looks from Bella to Damon.

"And that's why you're still dating him?" Bella asks sardonically.

Elena looks at her while opening and closing her month a few times, "we knew each other for years, but we're just better as friends. I mean I see him as a brother now that I have Stefan." Elena says as she looks to Stefan for the first time since I arrived.

"Jeremy, I think we should go." Bella says looking at me, with a look to say she's finding it hard to hold back from saying something that would be true but end up upsetting Elena. I sigh and nod my head at her.

"Okay, well you have your bag. I'll see you if you ever come home."

I follow the directions that Bella gave and am a little shocked to find us at a college party.

"Bella?" Bella smiles at me and pulls two bags from the back seat and hands me one.

"Front seat or back?" I look at the back and nod my head before climbing over into the back.

"Is Elena going to kill me?" I talk as I pull out the shirt and jeans Bella has packed for me.

"She won't know. I'm more than sure Stefan will keep her busy all night." I nod my head while shuffling out of my old jeans, putting on the new ones.

"What about Aunt Jenna?" I hear Bella laughing.

"Well I am pretty sure she won't be home till the early hours of the morning. I'm really surprised they haven't torn each others' clothes off by now."

My head snaps to the front seat but I can't see Bella as she lies down.

"Do you know who she's dating?"

Bella sits up and grins at me, nodding her head. "Ric." I look at her and tilt my head. The only Ric I now is-

"She's dating Mr. Saltzman?" I yell out which make some guys they were passing the car to turn towards us.

"Yup, they make a cute couple." I roll my eyes and button up my shirt.

"Hmm... Jeremy, I see you've been working out." I look to Bella who is applying a little makeup.

"It helps me feel calm." Bella give me a look and nods her head at me.

"Can you hand me the leather jacket?" I look back seeing that it's up on the back window. I grab it, get out of the car, and look Bella up and down.

She's got on a little black leather pants that are laced at the top of her legs and sit on her hips and black slashed top which stops just above her belly button. Her hair is laying loose down her back, and on her feet are her army boots.

Bella gives me a spin and I give her a nod of approval. "Let's go and have some fun." I hand Bella her jacket and she puts it on.

We walk in and grab a drink first before heading to the dance floor. We spend time between the dance floor and drinking.

"Hey, Jeremy." I turn and look shocked to see Anna stand there looking between Bella and I. I had met Anna a few weeks back when she was looking for her mom.

"Hey Anna, this is my best friend Bella. Bella, this is Anna." Bella leans over and shakes Anna's hand.

"Well I'm going to a dance with some hot college guys. I'll leave you two to talk." I watch Bella walk away and smile as I turn back to Anna.

"So..." I say feel a little unsure of myself.

"My mom and I are moving to Mystic Fall's this week." I grin at her happy.

"Really? You'll love it and you can hang with Bella and me."

Anna looks over to the dance floor where Bella is dancing. "You look like you're very close, is she you girlfriend?" I look at her a little shocked.

"What?! God no! I love her and will do anything for her, but no. She's like my little sister." Anna smiles and nods her head at me.

"We've know each other for eleven years, and she knows more about me that anyone including Elena." Anna looks at me happily.

"I'm glad that you have someone like that." I nod my head at her and look to the dance floor.

"Would you like to dance with me?" Anna looks to the dance floor and then nods her head.

"Come on, show me your moves." I chuckle and lead her to the dance floor.

**Damon's POV**

My eyes go to Bella's ass as she and Jeremy head back out to his car. Good god does she have an ass on her, out of all the girls I've ever seen or been with, her ass is by far the sexiest.

"You're such a disgusting pig, Damon." Elena's bitchy voice makes me looks back to the group, who are all looking at me with the judgmental eyes.

"What? I can't help it if Bella is sex on legs." Elena stands up and crosses her arm under her chest.

"Really? Aren't you supposed to be brooding over that fact Katharine, the girl you claim to love, wasn't in the tomb?" I stand up and look down at her.

"I'll leave the brooding to my brother since he's so much better at that than I am. And you know what they say; the best way to get over a girl is to have one under you. You're not jealous are you Elena? There's Matt chasing after Bella, then there's Jeremy and then me, what's wrong, don't you like sharing the spot light? Or is the fact you know you've been pushed out of it?" I chuckle at the angry look on Elena's face, knowing that I'm right. Elena has been the golden girl, the girl every guy wants for a year now. Then Bella arrives, now most of Mystic Falls High's boys are all trying to get Bella to date them and Elena has become yesterday's news.

Elena moves to slap me across the face and I catch her hand before it come in contact. "Don't do that again, or I will no longer care who you are or who you date." I put a little force into my hold, just till she knows I mean what I say.

"Damon, let go of Elena right now." Stefan says as he places a hand on me. I let Judy go. "That's not why Elena's upset. It's because you're going to end up hurting Bella." I roll my eyes at St. Stefan, he really needs to get a clue that Elena likes to be looked at and likes to have boys fall at her feet. It's also the main reason why she still hangs out with Matt. That is something I would never allow is my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend to be hanging around making puppy dog eyes at her.

"Oh really, so why has she got her panties in a twist?"I ask sitting back down with a drink in hand.

"What are you planning to do with Bella? Compel her to have sex with you, date you, allow you to drink from her, till you screw up. Look at Caroline, Vicky. You got your heart broken, so you're breaking other girl's hearts to make up for it. You know what, don't worry about Bella, after all she's not important enough to you. We'll fix whatever it is you do her, after all that's all Stefan and I do is clean up your messes." Elena shakes her head at me and walks out, I glance at Stefan and know he think the same as what Elena just said.

I sigh and walk out of the house. I find myself walking and sitting outside of where the tombs are. I replay what Elena said but there's no way I'll be one of those guy that hands over my balls to my girlfriend. It's not like Bella and I are really friends, she's just someone I met a week ago.

"Damon, we need to talk about this." I don't turn around to face Stefan.

"We were meant to save her. She's meant to be in there, trapped." He sighs then takes a seat next to me.

"I know and I am sorry. I know this my fault, for us thinking that she was dead then trapped. I swear I thought he would help." I hold back my growl at hearing Stefan again, repeating the same thing he has said a countless number of times. At the end of the day he trusted our father more than me. That hurts more than him going after a girl that I liked, and to find out that Katharine didn't love me like I thought she did.

"I know you hate me for bringing you into this life." I turn my head sharply and look at him, getting him to stop talking.

"I don't hate you for that, I can understand that. I hated that fact she changed you too, that she loved you enough to allow you to change too." I stop talking before I can say that I felt like I was not enough for her, that my love for her was not enough. Even now that I'm finding and coming to terms that it was true. I'm not enough for anyone.

"What are you doing with Bella?" I chuckle a little.

"I'm not doing anything with Bella right now brother. Give the girl a chance to settle but we both know, no woman can resist a guy this good looking, my style, my charm. She will be mine, I just enjoy the chase." I get up and move quickly away from him before he can speak again.

I head over to the nearest college campus' dorm building and grin when I see a party in full swing. I walk in and look to see who will be my meal. As my eyes go to the dance floor, I stop and stare before shaking my head and move to where Bella is dancing with some douchebag. I move behind her and the guy gives me a look to say 'mine, fuck off'.

I wrap my arm around her and pull her close to me. "Damon." I chuckle as I lean down at her, seeing her eyes are still closed.

"You're on to me again." I say and she tilts her head up, looking at me upside down. The smile on her face makes me bend a little and place a kiss on her forehead.

"Hey, bro but I was dancing with your sister." I let out a growl as Bella chuckles then she turns to grab my arm.

"Sorry, Rob, he's not my brother. Thanks for the dance." Bella says a she leads us way. She grabs a bottle and a black jacket before pulling me outside.

"Want to share?" Bella say as she shakes the bottle of Bourbon. I smile taking the bottle and opening it.

"I love a girl that has good taste." Bella chuckles as I drink and follow her outside

"It was a mistake; I was aiming for the soda." I look at Bella as she lies down on the ground and looks up at the sky. I lay the opposite way with my head next to hers. The top of my head touches the top of her shoulder. I turn to her and sniff her neck again, and she smells as good as she did the first time. I turn back and look up at the sky.

"So, what's a girl like you doing at a college party?" I watch Bella turn and look at me from the corner of my eye.

"I heard some people talking about it and it seemed like a good way to let my hair down, and I think Jeremy really needed a night out." I look at her with frown.

"Did you forget to bring him?" Bella chuckles and shakes her head.

"No, he met a girl named Anna, she made his eyes dance so I gave them some alone time." I nod my head then take another drink. I hand it over to Bella who takes a drink and hands it back to me.

"So, tell me about your ex." I say when Bella doesn't say anything after ten minutes.

"He was perfect, could do anything he put his mind too, was extremely good looking and women fell at his feet all the time. He was always the perfect gentleman. He was boring." I chuckle because that's what I was thinking when she was talking about him.

"Sometimes I look back now and I wonder if he was trying for Sainthood. He made me feel wrong, that my feelings were dirty and wrong and I should been ashamed to have shown them to him." I frown when I hear the sadness in her voice.

I turn to her as she laughs. "When he first left me, I felt like it was my entire fault, as if I wasn't worthy of him."

I roll onto my side and look at her. "You don't really seem like to type to have a lack of confidence." I say a little confused.

Bella matches my body movement. "I did, for a long time I did. If you met the girl I was two year ago, hell, even a year ago, that's who would've been there but someone, the one that knows you, sort of helped me with that too. Edward left me broken because of his fear; he chose to protect his own heart over mine. He could respect himself for who he was and didn't understand when I did.

"When I met this person, our friend, I was so broken up over Edward, so afraid it took a week for me-" Bella stops talking. "Let's just say I was put through more pain, but then our friend gave me something that changed my life, showed me another way. What would happen if I allowed that pain to live inside me? So I let it go. It's been a year since I met them, and the pain I felt the night he left has gone. I hope Edward is okay and happy. And I hope he finds the girl that's right for him." I look at her shocked that she would want that for someone that broke her heart.

"What about you?" I look at her, sigh and roll back on to my back.

"What about me?" My reply is short and gruff.

Bella smiles and lies flat on her back again. "Have you had your heart broken?"

I chuckle. "Did our friend not tell you?"

Bella shrug her shoulders a little. "I would like to hear from your point of view."

"Yes, I met this girl. She was staying at our house, I came home and she was there. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I told Stefan what I thought of her, he knew how I felt. I mean I never chased a girl before, always went for the easy ones. But she seemed to keep choosing Stefan over me, and he swore to me he didn't feel anything for her. After he took her to a dance, I told her how I felt and I made love to her. But again she went back to my brother, and he started to want to be with her. I couldn't understand how he could do that to me, to his-" I stop, trying not to get worked up.

"She left both of us, I thought she had passed away, then when I found out she hadn't, I thought she needed my help and I spent most of my time trying to find a way to save her, only to find that she was fine. I don't know if she knows where I am, or if she's looking for me, but I've been told that she does know where I am and she just doesn't care." I stop talking as the anger starts to build up.

"But you need to see her, talk it out with her, and have closure so you can freely move on." I turn and look at Bella as she talks. "It's hard when someone tells you that you fell for the wrong person, or that you don't feel what you think you feel. You've lived years of trying to find a way to her, only to find out that she wasn't there. You feel cheated, wronged but there's always that little bit of hope inside of you that tells you just maybe she did feel something for you that makes it all worthwhile. That they did use you, that they saw something inside of you. Because if they didn't, it suck ass, and it's so much worse to find out that someone you give your heart to doesn't think you're worthy of the truth, worth their time to say why they did what they did to you. You're not even worthy of the few crappy seconds it would've taken to say I care for you but I don't want to spend the rest of my days with you, a sorry or even a goodbye, take care of yourself." I take a drink and hand it to Bella.

"We've both been really fucked over." Bella chuckles a little.

"While you were more ways than one, I was just fucked over." I chuckle at her double meaning.

"Are you telling me you never give it up to Eddie boy?" Bella shakes her head.

"At first, I was happy you know, but as we got know each other, he was still keeping me at arm's length. We didn't even really make out. Good way to make a girl feel desired and good about herself. I always felt that I wasn't pretty or sexy enough for him." I sit up looking at her in shock.

"Tink, you are one sexy girl. Really, what the hell did you date? Even a gay guy would find you sexy. That guy must've been one stone cold fish, more likely his dick didn't work right." I look at Bella as she starts giggling at me.

"Come on, better get back to Jeremy and make sure no one's is messing with him." I jump up and help Bella to stand.

I stop short, feeling a little uncomfortable about what I had told Bella about Katherine. I look into her eyes, and I let out a sigh as I remember that I can't compel her.

"I take to my grave whatever you said to me. I will not repeat it, not even to Jeremy." I nod my head at her.

We walk into the dorm building again and I see half the males that are near the door all look Bella up and down with grin on their face. I drape my arm around her and pull her to me. I look down seeing that she's looking up at me. I grin, more like smirk, down at her.

"How tall are you Tink?" Bella chuckles, "Because I am not a big man." As a blush appears on Bella's face, I raise my eyebrow at her.

"Oh Bella, I am big in that department, and you really do have a dirty mind, which I think I'm enjoying finding out about it. I'm about six foot, Stefan is a little taller than me at six one but I seem to tower over you." Bella shakes her head.

"I'm five two." I give her a look. "I am, I swear." I chuckle and nod my head at her.

"Hmm I will have to check that out later." Bella rolls her eyes and then looks to the dance floor.

"I found Jeremy and I'm glad to see he's okay." I look the way Bella is looking and see Jeremy is dancing with Anna, a fellow vampire.

"I think he like her."

"Of course he does, it in the Gilbert DNA." I say with Bella giving me a confused look right after.

"It's in his DNA to like a pretty girl?" I shake my head, not like I can tell her it's in his DNA to like a vampire.

"Never mind, come and dance with me." I say as I pull her to the dance floor.

I spin Bella as soon as we get to the dance floor. "You got some good moves Damon." I pull her close to me.

"I've got moves you never seen before." Before she can say anything, I have spun her away again. I smile when Bella's face lights up as she laughs. It confuses me a little as Bella normally seems happy but this is the first I've really seen her looking like this, which to me means she hides behind a mask.

I spend the next hour dancing with Bella before Jeremy come up to us.

"Bella, Damon?" I grin at him.

"Gilbert, Anna." I look to Anna and watch as she moves a little away from me.

"How is your mom doing?" Anna swallows and gives me a pleading look.

"She's doing much better thanks."

"You'll never guess what Bella. Anna and her mom are moving to Mystic Falls and she'll be starting school with us next week."

Bella smiles and lean over to hug Anna. "I'm so happy." Anna gives her a worried look and just grins at her.

"I won't be the new girl anymore, and you're pretty so the guys will stop asking me out and ask you out. YAY! You have just saved lives." Jeremy chuckles and shakes his head.

"She doesn't like being asked out, she likes to be in the shadows, watching everyone." Anna nods her head.

"Have you asked her to the dance yet? It would be a good way for her to meet people." Jeremy pales a little and glares at Bella's suggestion.

"You should come with us, I think it's the 50s dance." Anna turns and looks at Jeremy.

"Yeah, 50s you should come with Bella and me, and have a laugh as she tries hard to hide from the guys who all asked her to it." Anna looks to me and I roll my eyes at how worried she looks.

"Yup, I know Elena and Stefan have been talking about it non-stop, I may even pop in on it." Bella turns and looks at me.

"Aren't you like twenty-four? Are you allowed to attend?"

I look at her and chuckle, "I normally do what I want." Bella rolls her eyes and looks back to Anna.

"Do you need a ride home?" Anna nods her head and Bella looks at me.

"What about you Damon, do you need a ride, or are you planning on staying here to get another kind of ride?" I smirk at her.

"I would like a ride but I'd rather do the driving." I take the keys that Jeremy had taken out of his pocket and walk away with it.

Jeremy and Anna sit in the back and Bella sits next to me. I drop Anna off first and see Pearl look at me from the window. "Who's next?" I ask looking between Bella and Jeremy.

"Me." Bella says, "This is Jeremy's car." I nod my head and drive to Bella's house. Jeremy gets out and walks her to the door.

He gets in the front seat and looks at me. "Look, Bella will kill me when she finds out I did this but she's my friend. Whatever it is that you're doing with her, please don't hurt her. She's been through a lot and there's a lot that's happened to her this past year, some that she hasn't told me about yet. I can see the change in her, a lot of them are good but there is still a lot of hurt there. I'm not asking you to be the best guy or even a great guy, all I ask is that if this just a game to you then leave her be, if its more than that, good, but keep in mind Bella is always trying to save people from being hurt no matter the cost to her. She's one of the best people you can be friends with. She'll always have your corner and will stand up for you, always. She's easy to please and to love, and she shows her love for others every day." By the time he finished his little speech, he was getting out of the car.

"I'll come by and get the car tomorrow. Good night, Damon." He closes the door and walks away. I laugh a little while shaking my head. Seems as if Jeremy is protective of little Bella, even more so than his sister, but I wonder what more could've happened to Bella last year.

**What do you think of Bella taking Jeremy to a college party? Leave a review and tell me what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you to blueguju for Beta this for me, she a real star!**

**EHFAR chapter 4**

**Jeremy POV**

"Will you let me take you to the dance?" I hold back my chuckle as Brian looks at his shoes as he asks Bella. This is so awkward.

"I'm sorry but I already have a date." Bella says sweetly. Brian looks sad and confused as he walks away,

"When did you get a date for the dance?" I ask looking at Bella.

"Anna's my date; you were there when I asked her." Bella says in a matter of fact tone and goes back to eating her lunch.

"I thought she was my date?" I ask and Bella chuckles at me shaking her head.

"Nope, you were too chicken shit to ask her, so I did and she said yes. That makes her my date. You could always go with Damon." I glare at Bella which makes her laugh even more.

I shake my head and start eating my lunch. I look to the door as Elena and Stefan walk in, she looks my way and gives me a wave so I wave back.

"Has she come home yet?" I look back at Bella and shake my head at her.

"No, something's going on, and I think it's something to do with Vicky." Bella looks a little pale while looking at the seat next her, then she turns to look at me.

"What makes you say that?" I let out a sigh.

"They were talking about Damon, her and Bonnie, and if they could let Matt or me find out, and that Matt would hate Damon because of it." Bella nods her head.

"That does sound strange; did you talk to her about it?" I shake my head at her.

"Do you think Damon was sleeping with Vicky and left her heart broken, and that's why she left?" Bella leans forward a bit toward me.

"What makes you say that?" I sigh and rub my face.

"Just from what they were saying and how it was said." Again Bella looks to the seat next to her and then at me.

"Vicky made her own choice in life; she took drugs and drank till she could feel. She made a shitty choice about her life, refused to deal with her problems and only added to them. It is likely that Damon and she had a sexual relationship. She was trying to find love in the wrong ways and thought that by sleeping with guys meant they loved and cared about her. But when someone showed her love, she pushed them away like she did with you. It doesn't make what she did right or the fact that someone used her much in the way she used you, right. Damon has his own problems and demons to fight, and he too makes the wrong choices in life. Who gets to say whose mistake is greater than another's? You need to move on from Vicky, she needs to move on and accept things for the way they are. She needs learns to hold her head up, say it was her mistake that led to this, and let others deal with what they see as their mistakes."

I sigh and look at her, a little puzzled about where all that came from. We go back to talking about the dance but every so often Bella would look to the side or away from me at nothing. The rest of the school day goes by but Bella and I end up getting detention in our last class.

"Jenna is going to be pissed. I promised that I wouldn't get detention again." Bella rolls her eyes at me.

"It'll be fine. When she hears what happened, she'll agree that Miss Semen was wrong." I laugh at her but end up sighing.

"It's Seamen Bella." Bella shrugs her shoulder and walks into the grill. It only takes us a few seconds to locate both Jenna and Sam, more because they are sitting next to each other, plus Damon is also there.

"Hey, Sam I need you to sign this, got detention. On second thought, Miss Seamen was being unfair so don't sign it" Sam turns and raises his eyebrow at Bella.

"She was! It's not my fault she said what she did." Bella says and a chuckle makes me turn around and see Mr. Saltzman sitting down on the other side of Damon.

"You really said that?" he says looking at Bella and she nods her head at him.

"What did you do, Bella?" Sam says and Bella lets out a breath.

"Miss Seamen was picking on another student, well I thought she was. She stands up and gets them to come to her table, spends five minutes going on and on. And then picks up a ruler and points it at them and said 'at the end of this ruler stands an idiot'. I leaned over to Jeremy and asked him if he knew what end she was talking about. The class laughed and well she gave us detention because of it. Clearly she's an idiot with no sense of humor." Damon chuckles and Sam just shake his head and signs the paper.

"Sorry Jenna, I got Jeremy into trouble too because it was him that I talked to." Jenna looks at me and takes my slip to sign it. I shake my head when I see she's trying to hold back a laugh.

"Can you print something off for me tonight at work?" Bella asks when she takes the slip back from Sam.

"Yeah, what is it?" Bella smiles at him and hand him her cell. "A hundred ways to annoy your teacher." Sam reads, and then he looks at Bella as he shakes his head.

"There is also a hundred ways to annoy the police." Bella says and gives him a smile.

Sam looks at Bella's phone and chuckles a few times. "The answer is still no, and if you do any of that to Liz, you will be in jail, and I will be putting it on YouTube." Bella sighs taking her cell from him.

"You used to be more fun, who knew sex made a guy go boring?" Sam glares at her.

"It doesn't make me go boring, hell I'm a lot more fun after sex." Bella turns and looks at Damon.

"Why do I get the feeling that where it would be more fun for you yet less for the girl?" Damon laughs a little.

"You could always find out." He says as he wiggles his eyebrows at her.

"You would have to buy me flowers, ask me out on a date, makes sure I have a good time. Treat me like I'm princess." Damon shakes his head at Bella.

"I don't do dates." Bella sighs.

"Oh well, I guess I'll never know if sex makes you boring." Damon rolls his eyes and leans in to Bella.

"Oh but you will, I always get my prey."

"Damon, hello I'm right here, you can see me right? Sam, Bella's brother, who will kill you if you keep looking at his baby sister like you want to, fu- do dirty stuff to her." Bella and Damon don't turn to look at Sam, but just stare at each other. If I didn't know better, I would say that Damon was developing a crush on Bella.

"I can see you Sam, and yeah I want to do more that dirty stuff with your little sister." Sam growls and stands up. Bella's hand shoots out to grab a hold of him.

"Just because he wants to, doesn't me he gets to, Sam. You, more than anyone here, knows what I've had to deal with, what I still have to deal with and what the means." Sam sighs and looks at Bella.

They stare at each other for a minute until Sam nods his head at her and sits down. I look at Damon seeing that he looks confused about what just happened between Bella and Sam but there's also worry there. Huh, maybe he does have a crush on her.

Bella nods her head at me and I follow her out. "Are you going to tell me what happened to you?" I ask knowing the little I have seen and heard, that something big did happen to her.

"I will soon, but not now please, Jeremy." I nod my head at her.

"You know that no matter what you tell me, you're still my best friend." Bella smiles at me but I can see it behind her eyes that she's worried that I'll turn my back on her.

"I know, I swear I will tell you and soon." I nod my head at her and pull her into hug her.

"I hate the fact I know someone hurt you and there's nothing I can do about it." Bella sighs and tightens her hug on me.

"You are doing something, just being here with me is enough." I smile at her and we carry on walking to the car. I let Bella in and walk around to my side when I suddenly get the feeling as if someone is watching me. I turn to see a crow on the wall and looking right at my car. I watch it for a few more seconds and feel as if it looking right back at me which makes me feel creeped out. I shake my head and get in the car.

Bella and I spend the rest of the day doing homework and playing one of my videogames. I drop her off at home just before ten. I head straight to my room knowing that Jenna is out and Elena is staying with Stefan. I walk into my bathroom and jump when Damon appears there out of no where.

"Did she tell you what happened to her?" I look at him.

"Tell me what she told you." I give Damon a 'what the fuck' face, and he looks into my eyes where his pupils do something weird.

"Tell me everything she told you about what happened to her last year." I close my eyes and do a mental eye roll.

"She didn't tell me anything yet but even if she did, I wouldn't tell you. It would be up to her if she told you or not." I move past Damon and he grabs my arm, sniffing me as he gets closer.

"You've been taking Vervain." I look a little puzzled.

"Yeah, Elena makes Jenna and I take it in our coffee in the morning. It's meant to be 'good' for you." I say picking up my toothbrush to brush my teeth.

"Damon, is there a reason you stopped by? I mean it's not like we talk much and Elena is at your house, right?" Damon looks at me curiously.

"You don't seem to be afraid of me any more Gilbert, why's that?" I look at him, slowly putting my toothbrush back down.

"Should I be afraid of you?" Damon smirks.

"It would be best, I don't have the best track record." Damon moves into my room and Vicky pops back into my head.

"Damon?" I call out to him as I also move into my room after him. He turns and looks at me.

"Did you have something with Matt's sister? I mean did you sleep with her?" Something flashes in Damon's eyes and he looks away from me.

"I sleep with a lot of girls; you can't expect me to remember all of their names. Besides, it would be un-gentlemanly of me to talk about it." I nod my head taking it as a yes.

"Do you know where she went, is she okay?" The same thing flashes in Damon's eyes but lasts longer, and I know that look, its guilt.

"I have no clue where she is." Damon says roughly and walks out. But like the guilty look, his tone is the same tone I use when I lie about something I feel guilty over. He knows where she is and she's not okay.

I rub my face and sit down. I try hard to think about everything I know and learned about this town. Recently we have been talking in school about the town and the founders. We are due to start celebrating in couple of weeks. I got hold of an old book about how some of the founders thought the town had vampires in it. At first, I laughed about it but the more I've seen of Damon, Stefan and Anna, I'm starting to think it's true and that they're really vampires. The fact that Elena's been acting strange leads me to believe that she knows. And I think that's what happened to Vicky, which makes me wish that I could talk to Bella about this, but with what ever happened to her last year is still going on with her and affecting her. Unless she knows and she's faced her own vampire.

I sigh, getting into my bed to try to get some sleep but all the questions keep running through my head. The rest of the week seems to go by quickly, and I've been keeping a closer eye on Bella. I know for a fact something weird is going on with her. I put on my clothes for the fifties dance and then head over to pick up Anna and Bella.

I arrive to see that Anna is at Bella's house waiting on me. I smile at them and chuckle at Bella's outfit, in which she has opted to wearing a three quarter length tight pants and a top. I walk them to my car and Bella jumps in the back telling Anna to get in the front.

We arrive at the school and head into the gym, where Bella quickly excuses herself to the restroom leaving Anna and I together.

"Do you wanna dance?" Anna nods her head and I lead her to the dance floor. I dance with her for the next few dances. I look around to see Damon and Bella who seem to be happy dancing with each other.

"They make a cute couple." I turn to look at Anna.

"Who? Stefan and Elena?" I ask, looking to see who she's looking at.

"No, Bella and Damon, they're cute together." I chuckle and look at them. I can see what Anna means as they do look like they are a couple.

"They're just friends, well sort of." I say as I lead Anna to the table with the drinks.

"I was thinking that maybe if you like, on Sunday I could make us dinner?" Anna looks at me and seems happy.

"Like a date?" I look at her and I have a feeling I probably look pale.

"Yeah, it could be if you want or just friends having dinner?" Anna smiles at me.

"So it's a date then." I chuckle and nod my head.

"Now that I got that out of the way, wanna dance some more?" I nod my head at her then take another look at Bella who's laughing at whatever Damon said, before pulling Anna to the dance floor.

At the end of the night Anna and I help clean up along with Damon, Bella and a few others. I watch and frown as Bella puts her trash bag down and walks out of the hall. I pick up a bottle and it jabs me. I look at it and see that it broken. Staring at my hand, I let out a breath when I see that I didn't break through skin. Then it hits me, a way to prove if Anna is a vampire or not. So I let it cut me little and watch Anna from the corner of my eye. She stops and looks at me.

"Damn, the bottle's broken and it must have been what cut me." Anna looks at me then to the cut. Her face changes a little and Anna looks at me, almost as if she's holding herself back. I can also see a lot of hurt there, like she's about to cry.

"I'm sorry, I need to go." Before I can say a word, Anna has left the hall and I'm alone. I text her and she tells me she doesn't like blood, so I text back telling her that I'm sorry. Looks as if I got my answer.

**Damon point of view**

I sigh hitting the keyboard more forcefully. "Damon, I just got that laptop." I grunt at Ric.

"Something happened to her, I need to know and she won't tell me." I say as I try to get into the any and all Forks files.

"This stupid computer's not working." I say hitting the table.

"It won't be working much longer if you keep hitting it. Just pass it over and I'll find what you're looking for."

I sigh and move over a little so Ric can sit down.

"I'll check with her school records first." I nod my head and he types away.

"Okay this says that she had a hundred percent attendance record right up to this time last year and then she was off for four months straight. Her academic record went from been 3.4 to 4.0 in this time too." Ric frowns.

"So she's off for four months and comes back smarter?" Ric shrugs his shoulders and nods, he let out a huff as he keeps look at the information.

"Her physical education is even better. Her teacher commented before she was off that 'Isabella' lacks balance and she felt that 'Isabella's' clumsiness was affecting the others in class. After the four months, she comments that 'Bella' was one of the fittest and well balanced students." I frown and rub my face. "Could she be a vampire?" I shake my head at him.

"No she smells human." Ric shrugs his shoulders again.

"Witch? Or maybe something else?" I think over what he said and look at him.

"Could be that she's aware of what happened to her, I wonder if this has to do with our mutual friend?" Ric looks at me confused. "She told me that someone told her about me, she never said who." Ric nods his head.

"That could lead to the answer." I nod my head at him again and pick up my drink.

"Keep digging, I'll work on her." Ric doesn't say anything but I can feel his stare. "What?" I ask without turning to him.

"Just be careful Damon, make sure you get all the facts first." I turn to look at him but he's picked up his laptop and walked to the door already.

"See you at the dance." I chuckle and nod my head at him.

I head to my room to get ready, and head back down in time to witness Stefan and Elena getting all hands on. "Mind the children." I say with a head nod to Caroline and Bonnie.

"Damon, tell me you're not going to the dance." Elena says.

"Okay, I'm not going to the dance." Elena glares at me and I chuckle walking out of the house.

I arrive at the school before any of the students. After getting the master key for the lockers, I head out to look for Bella's locker. I open it and rummage through it, where I do learn more stuff about her, but I find nothing that will clue me in on what the hell going on with her.

I close it and lock it again just as the kids all start to arrive. I hide out in one of the offices. I try to get my thoughts in order. I know I can't compel her, she's gotten smarter and physically better over four months when she was off of school. She seems to know when I'm around. I sigh knowing I'm not any closer than where I was earlier today. I jump off from the table and walk to the hall. I open the door and roll my eyes at the decorations they have up.

I slip through all of the others and smile when I see Bella dancing by herself. I move up to her almost on queue.

"Damon." I smirk at her and she turns looking at me.

"My locker better be the way I had it." I tilt me head at her completely baffled as to how she knew I was there. "Did you find what you were looking for?" I chuckle and shake my head.

"Nope and you're not going to tell me are you?" Bella looks around the room, her eyes stopping at Anna and Jeremy dancing.

"I will but I can't right now, there's more than me that this affects, and then there's the small fact that you'll hate me, so I'd rather we be friends for the short time." I frown at her.

"Why wouldn't we be friends?" Bella shake her head at me.

"I'm not ready to face it, talking about it will make that happen. I haven't even told Sam everything that went down. But when I tell you, it will lead to a question I don't feel I'll able to answer, till the people they affect are okay with it." I sigh and nod my head.

"I won't stop looking until I can work it out." Bella nods her head at me.

"I know you won't but you won't find out anything about them, they made sure of that."

"How about I show you some more of my moves?" Bella nods her head at me and I spin her way and pull her back. "I forgot to say, you look real good it this outfit, good enough to eat."

Bella shakes her head at be but keeps dancing. I spend the rest of the night dancing with Bella, we quickly start talking and when the dance is winding down, I was made to help clean up. I find myself puzzled by the fact I talked to Bella more tonight than I have ever talked to anyone, male or female.

"Bella looked like she had a good time." I turn seeing Jeremy standing behind me.

"I aim to please." I say as I walk out of the school, heading toward my car.

"I will help you but it's not like I can go digging up graves…" I frown hearing Bella's voice. "I know that, just give me time…" I look to Jeremy and he's looking back at me equally confused.

Jeremy and I look toward his car seeing Bella but there no one with her. "You're dead, it's not like you got somewhere to go!"

"See isn't that strange, her talking like someone's standing there with her? I mean ghost aren't real right?" I shrug my shoulders.

"I haven't seen any." Bella's head snaps around and she looks right at Jeremy and I. "Looks like we've been caught, I say we should both work together to find out what's going on with her, what do you say Gilbert."

"Looks as if we're partners." I look at him

"In crime." Jeremy rolls his eyes.

"I would rather face jail than Bella when she finds this out." I shake my head at him and turn around just as Bella arrives next to us.

"I thought Anna was with you?" Jeremy smiles at Bella.

"I cut my hand and the blood freaked her out. She needed to get some air and I'm sure she'll be here soon." Bella looks at Jeremy's hand then to him, almost as if she's sizing him up.

"How did you manage to cut your hand, Jeremy?" He looks at me then back to Bella.

"Bottle, it was broken and I was to busy talking to her." Bella lets out a hum, and sounds if she doesn't believe him any more than I do.

"Hey guys, sorry about that Jeremy." Jeremy nod his head at Anna as she walks up to us.

"You girls ready to go?" Bella and Anna both nod their heads, and I chuckle which makes everyone look at me.

"I'm just laugh at the fact both of the Gilberts had two dates, Elena came with Matt and Stefan, and Gilbert here came with Anna and you, Tink." They all look at me.

"Oh and poor you, couldn't find a date, sad face." Bella says as she makes a sad face at me.

I shake my head at her and grin. "Good night Tink, Gilbert, Anna" I say as I walk to my car.

"What doesn't Anna get a nick name?" I chuckle and look back at Bella.

"Does she want one?" Bella nods her head as Anna shakes her.

"Give me a day to come up with a good one, I take my nicknames seriously." Bella nod her head at me.

"I want it for when you stalk me as I'm running." I chuckle again and get in my car.

I arrive home finding Elena and Stefan making out. I grab a drink and walk out of the room. "Good night brother, Elena." I say as I head up the stairs. For the first time in over a hundred years, no, for the first time in my life both, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, to actually be spending time with someone.

**Jeremy point of view**

Bella and I drop off Anna and I call Aunt Jenna to ask if I could spend the night at Bella's. I had quickly explained to Bella that I had a date with Anna; thankfully Anna did not drop out of it. I wanted Bella help to make sure Anna would have a good night.

I pull up outside her house and walk in to the house with her and my mouth drops open.

"Oh great, princess is here." I look to Bella and then back to the sofa where a half-naked Sam sits and on top of him is Elena? What the hell did I just walk into?

**Tell me your thoughts in a review or pm. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to blueguju for Beta this for me, she a real star!**

**EHFAR 5**

**Jeremy POV**

I stand there with my mouth open, like a gaping fish. I go to talk but close my mouth because I don't even know what to say to what I'm seeing in front of me.

"Do you two really need to do that shit in the living room?" I look to Bella, surprised that she seems, okay with this, like it's normal.

"I can't help it if every time I see Sam I want to rip his clothes off." I notice that there's something wrong with Elena's voice, it sounds different.

"Who's the fish?" I snap my mouth shut.

"Elena, what in the hell are you doing? What about Stefan?" I manage to get out in one breath.

"Jeremy, I would like you to meet Katherine, Sam's girlfriend. Katherine, this is Jeremy Gilbert." Elena, or Katherine, looks to me and then looks me up and down.

"It's always nice to meet the family-well of a sort." I look to Bella but her only response is to roll her eyes and look at me.

"Bella, are you going to explain why Sam's girlfriend looks like Elena? Hell, is she her twin? Do I have another sister?" Bella shake her head at me.

"Come on. I'll tell you what I can, but no asking questions." I nod my head and follow Bella as she goes upstairs.

"Princess, make sure no one sees you, no causing trouble. In fact, no going into the god damn town. If anyone comes here to kill you for whatever shit you did to them, after I save you, I swear I will kill you myself." I frown as Bella slams her door close.

"Take a seat; this is going to take a while." I sit down and look at Bella as she begins to talk.

I think from the moment Bella start to tell me what happened to her over the last two years, my eyes just get wider and wider. I don't know if my brain can handle this.

"So Katherine, who is over five hundred years old and has dated Damon and Stefan? Who just also happens to be a vampire?" Bella nods her head at me.

"Damon's going to be pissed. I'm not sure if he'll let you explain." Bella sighs and nods her head at me.

"I know, but she saved me." I look at Bella with a raised eyebrow.

"After she beat the crap out of you and almost killed you?" Bella gives me her 'I am not impressed look'.

"They made her. You don't understand what it was like there, what they did. They're monsters, well mine anyway. Katherine is a little-" I look at Bella to continue and she huffs "-fine she's a selfish bitch, who would kill anyone if it meant she would get to live."

"She also has good hearing." I look to the door where the sing song voice came from and Bella flip the finger at it.

"She conniving and manipulative but we shared a lot, I know her fully Jeremy." I look at her with a frown.

I sigh and move to hug Bella. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Tell me everything you can."

I sit for the next two hours with Bella telling me the full story. Katherine and Sam had joined us and Katherine tells me her story which was heart breaking. While I can't say I agree with what she's done but I can understand it a little. I can also understand Bella's need to protect Katherine.

It was the early hours of the morning when Bella told me she could see ghost, as soon as she started, I knew, I just knew one of them was Vicky. I cried like a baby, I am not sure what came over me. Bella just hugged me and looked into my eyes. It felt like everything I have been hiding and holding onto, came to the top and spilled out.

Bella held me the whole time, and when I was done I felt better, much more than I have in a long time. Vicky came and I got to talk to her and say my good bye. By morning I felt like I was free to move on from Vicky. The thing I was most afraid of was Bella, _they_ are still out there and I am sure they are still looking for her, Katherine too.

I head in to the kitchen to make Bella and me a light breakfast before we head out for her morning run.

"Hmm I see you have the Petrova ass, you can thank me for that." I turn and see Elena, and as she smiles at me I remember that it's not Elena but Katherine.

"Hi." I say weakly, I watch as she chuckles.

"You don't need to be afraid of little old me, I'm harmless."

"Yeah, so are mosquitoes but they still bite you and try to drink you dry." Katherine laughs at me and walks forward.

"Tell me Jeremy, what going on between Bella and Damon?" I look at her confused.

"Just tell me what you think." She asks as she steps closer to me.

"I think Damon may have a crush on Bella. I think Bella likes Damon but something's holding her back, and I knew nothing to do with him been a vampire."

Katherine sighs, "Yeah, she does like him, but Damon lo-" she stop talking and looks at me. "Bella is my friend, my only friend. I like her a lot more than I should. The girl has a way of attaching herself to your heart; she doesn't even notice the effect she has on people. Can we agree that we don't want to see her hurt?" I swallow and nod my head; her eyes tell me that Bella means a lot to her. "If you see me out and about, remember wavy hair, I am me. Straight hair, I'm pretending to be Elena. If you see me with Damon, play along. I'll give you your cue. And what ever happens, don't tell Bella! I swear that I will, the girl's like a dog with a bone, and she always knows when I'm up to something." I nod my head at her and she taps my ass.

"Oh, I should say that I don't like your sister much. But I have promised I wouldn't hurt her, but I do like you." She gives me a smile and then grabs some bacon and stuff from the fridge.

"Sit, I'm making Sam a fry up, I'll make you one too."

I watch Katherine in amazement as she does so many things so fast. "Bella tells me you know Anna?" I ask. Katherine looks at me nodding her head.

"I sort of got a date with her. How freaked will she be if I told her I knew what she was?" Katherine stops and looks at me with a chuckle.

"She'd be surprised, that's for sure. Hmm, I think you should tell her but you may have to give her a day or two to get used to the fact that you know and that you're okay with it. She may not be that surprised if she is aware that Elena is dating Stefan."

I sigh and nod my head. "Yeah, Elena freaked last night when I told her I had a date with Anna." Katherine rolls her eyes at me.

"Ah, so little miss goody two shoes can date a vampire but her little brother can't? Hell, Anna's older than Stefan. Hell, Stefan was the ripper. Humans." She huffs. I watch as she keeps talking away.

"Can I ask why you don't like Elena?" Katherine stops and looks at me.

"I was her; well sort of, if you change to the year that I lived, but everything is so similar. I didn't get to live my life, the live that I wanted. It was taken from me, so I guess I'm pissed that she's getting to live the life that I had, and thought that I wanted. It's hard, I love being a vampire, of course I do, and it brought me Sam, Bella. But my life took an abrupt turn all because of one choice. I don't regret it; I only hate what happened because of it." I frown because I don't really understand her.

She gives me a plate for Bella and another for myself before walking out of the kitchen. I shake my head and chuckle a little about how weird that was before heading back up to Bella's room with our breakfast.

I take a deep breath like Bella told me to before hanging up my cell on her. I look around the living room, giving it yet another clean. The week flew by and Bella managed to think of a way to have Vicky's body discovered. Matt took it real hard but Elena was at his side. Even his mom showed back up. Bella acted funny around her, she seemed to keep most of the guys away from her. When I asked about it, Bella just said that Matt's mom was dealing with some stuff she hadn't learnt to deal with yet.

Damon gave me a lot of weird looks. I have a feeling that he knows that I know more about what went down with Bella. Thankfully he hasn't approached me about it, but I know that he will soon. He did come up with a nickname for Anna, which was Baby V. I didn't get it till Bella told me that V was for Vampire, which I still find strange, as Anna is about five hundred years older than Damon.

Because of Vicky's body being found, Anna and I postponed our date to the following Sunday, which is today and she's due any minute now. I take another deep breath and look around the living room. I start to change things around, trying to make it look perfect.

I take another breath as I hear the doorbell, I walk over and open it to see Stefan and Elena, and I know this time that it's Elena as Bella told me how to tell the difference between Elena and Katherine.

"What?" I ask as Elena walks in.

"I forgot my keys, must me in my room somewhere." Elena walks in and takes a seat looking at me.

"Elena, it's good to see you but why are you here? I have a date remember?" She nods her head at me.

"Yes, I know, I just thought you would like to have dinner with Stefan and me too. It'll be like a double date." I groan and shake my head at her.

"What? No way!" I say as there's another knock on the door. I look to see Damon walking in. I frown till I see Anna and Bella walking in behind him.

"Jeremy, you all set to go?" I'm sure my face has a 'what the fuck' look. "You know, the theatre? Damon got us the tickets to the last show." I nod my head and grab my jacket.

"Yeah, sorry Bella, still sleeping I guess. Bye Stefan, Elena, sorry about dinner, maybe next time." I say quickly running out of the house, as Damon chuckles, walking slowly behind us.

"Jeremy!" Elena yells.

"Please, please, Damon gets us the hell out of here." Damon nods his head at me.

"Don't worry Buffy, I'll make sure he's returned home safe and sound." Damon says with a wave as Elena glares at him.

I wave as we drive off. "Thank you so much." I say with a sigh and Bella just winks at me.

We're only out for a less than half hour when Bella and Damon head somewhere else to give me time alone with Anna.

"What would you like to do?" I ask as we walk along the park. Anna shrugs her shoulder.

"This is good." She says and I smile, nodding head at her. I bite my lip as I take hold of her hand. I let out a breath as she wraps her hand in mine and give me her smile.

It feels so right to have her with me that I can't help but smile. I didn't feel this much in love when I was with Vicky and this feels like a thousand times that. I close my eyes knowing that I need to tell her that I don't care about what she is, that I want to date her.

"Anna." I say, pulling her to a nearby bench. "Let me say this. I really like you and I would want you as my girlfriend." Anna looks to me happy but then I see sadness in her eyes. "I know what you are; I know that you're a vampire. I don't care about because I still feel for you." Anna looks at me as if she's in shock and she shakes her head.

"How can you know? It can't be alright, I shouldn't be here. I should've left like mother said." I hold her face making her look at me.

"Don't go, please don't go. I'm not afraid of you. I know you won't hurt me. If Stefan and Elena can date, then so can we. Please just give us a chance." She looks at me and I know she's caving. I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I slowly place my lip on hers. At first, it's soft till Anna starts to kiss me back and before I know it, I'm lying on the bench and she's on top, kissing me. We pull back a little and I see that her eyes are black. She goes to move away but I pull her face back around.

"You're beautiful." I say and I know that she knew that I meant it, and she starts to kiss me again.

Anna and I spend the next hour laying on the grass by a tree, kissing and talking about everything.

"Hey, how are you two getting on?" I look up seeing Bella and Damon standing in front of us, looking down at Anna and me with grins on their faces. I tilt my head a little as Damon seems happy, not the happy look he normally has, but a look to of true happiness about. I watch as his eyes go to Bella's before looking back down at me and Anna.

"I guess it time to go then," I say and Bella nods her head and puts her hand out to help Anna up. I go to get up and jump a little when I see Damon's hand out in front of me. I shake my head and take it.

**Damon POV**

"We have a problem Damon." Stefan says as he walks into my room without knocking. Elena is only a few seconds behind him. I sit up as she looks my way. I make sure the covers fall and Elena's eye seem to follow it down. When her eyes meet mine, I wink at her.

"DAMON!" Stefan yells and I smirk looking at him.

"Elena thinks that Jeremy may be interested in Anna." I look shocked at him.

"Really, what give her that idea?" I say sarcastically as I roll my eyes. The boy has his tongue hanging out every time he sees the girl. Strange that seeing him going all giddy over Anna makes me feel better when I see how close he is with Bella. The more I see them now, the more I see them acting like brother and sister.

"Damon have you been listening to me?" Elena's high pitched voice breaks through my thoughts.

"Can't say I did." I say getting out of bed. I pick up a bottle of bourbon and start to drink it.

"Damon, it's seven in the morning!" Elena yells again. "That's a bit early for that don't you think?" I huff and turn to her.

"No but it's a bit early for your yelling. Look, he likes her, she likes him. They get together and you don't need to worry about him getting her pregnant or catching anything, well unless you count becoming a vampire something."

Elena glares at me for a few minutes before storming out of my room, slamming the door, stomping like an elephant all the way to Stefan's room and slamming his door.

"Damon, can't you take anything serious? He's her brother and Anna may be nice and all but she drinks human blood." I look at him disbelievingly.

"Of course she does brother, she's a vampire." Stefan looks at me and just for a few seconds, I see my little brother, the one I love more than anything else.

"She's scared that he'll get hurt." I sigh and nod my head.

"We could tell him, but I have a feeling he may already know or at least he's on his way to knowing." Stefan frowns at me.

"What makes you say that?" I sigh and shrug my shoulders.

"A feeling I have when I talk with him. Some things he said to me." Stefan frowns and looks jealous for a few seconds.

"What has he said to you? I've been trying to get him to open up to me but he won't." I chuckle a little.

"Maybe it's because I don't push him to talk. Well I don't care but he seems to love to talk to people who want him to shut up, you should try that." Stefan shakes his head and walks out of my room. I smile and grab a quick change of clothes. I get in my car to see if I can still catch Bella on her jog.

I pull over and watch her and Jeremy talking as they jog together. I let out a sigh, feeling a little put out that I don't get her to myself this morning.

"Gilbert, Tink." I nod as I walk to them. They both look my way and I look to Bella as she smiles at me.

"And I have thought of a name for Anna, Baby V." I say with a chuckle.

Bella looks at me curiously and after a few moment she nods, and seems to like what I came up with. It took me less than an hour to come up with it. While to me, Anna is very young and seems to be young still, she is actually five hundred or so years older than me. And V of course is for vampire. I end up spending the afternoon with Jeremy and Bella, which was not as bad as I first thought it would be. By the end of the afternoon I was beginning to like Jeremy a little more than I used to. I can't help the fact that he seems to care of Bella. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure his feelings are more like a brother toward her, which is good for him because I think I would rip his head off if there was anything else to it. That right there has already got me confused and thinking more on it every day.

I loved Katherine, and knew that she and Stefan had feelings for one another. Where I was jealous and hate that she went between us, even despised that she gave Stefan her blood but I never felt the true want to kill Stefan. I've been muddling over these new feelings for the past few days, still very unsure of what they mean, for me, Bella or Katherine, who I don't even think about unless I'm thinking of what I feel for Bella and compare to what I felt for her.

I stop in my tracks hearing the voices of Sam and Liz nearby.

"It's Vicky Donovan, she was meant to have left town." I creep down and watch them in a nearby tree; Sam looks around as Liz keep talking about her worries. He look at me, and it's almost as if he can see me, which I know he can't, well not if he's human.

"Sam, have you seen this kind of animal attack? I mean, what kind of animal digs a grave? The council will want answers." Sam moves his eyes from me and looks to Liz.

"Liz I think we should call this in, and talk somewhere more private." Liz sighs and nods her head at him.

Within an hour the place is crawling with cops. Once I'm sure they had nothing, I left and headed straight home. I walk upstairs and into Stefan room just at the right moment or the wrong one, depends on how you look at it.

"Damon, knock." Stefan says as he covers a screaming Elena.

"Why you don't you ever knock on mine? Anyway, I thought that you would like to know that Vicky's body has been found."

Elena sits up and the cover falls showing her black lace bra off, I wiggle my eyebrow at her. "Well, Elena, I didn't pick you to be the girl that wore a bra like that, or is that just for my brother?"

Elena bites her lip and tries to look offended. "Get out Damon, so Elena can get dressed." I shake my head, keeping my eye on Elena. She has a good body on her, shame about the face and personality.

"Why are you still in my room?" Stefan sighs.

"I'll tell you what dear brother, you start to knock on my door and I will do the same," I say standing up.

"I'd go for a shower, a cold one," I say walking out the room.

I laugh knowing that I put a damper on what Stefan and Elena had planned. I whistle and enjoy some peace and quiet.

The days pass and Mystic Falls takes the finding of Vicky's body hard. It raises many questions, and the only odd thing is where Jeremy didn't seem as surprised to hear about it. And then there was Bella and her brother Sam who seemed to be talking quietly to each other often.

Matt and his mother, who is quite hot for an old bird, gave Vicky a good send off. Elena had not left Matt's side which meant that Stefan's been more broody than normal.

"So, are you going to join us for a drink?" I turn and smirk at Kelly, Matt's mom, as she runs her eyes up and down me.

"Who us?" I ask looking behind her.

"Jenna and Alaric." I nod my head and pick up a bottle and four glasses, and follow her to the table.

"Wow, Damon you have such strong arms." Kelly says and she bites her lip. She's had a few drinks from before I joined the group, but she's acting drunker then what she should be.

"And you have an amazing smile. I can't believe you're old enough to be Matt's mom. You look half your age." I say looking right at her.

"Damon, stop." She says hitting my arm.

"Yes, Damon stop, KELLY time to go." I turn and look seeing an upset Bella standing behind me, glaring at Kelly.

"Come on, I'm just having fun." Kelly says like a child.

"You had it, time to go." Bella says walking forward to help Kelly stand.

"Why must you always ruin my fun, I came back didn't I?" Bella roll her eyes and grips Kelly's arm.

"Your daughter, Vicky's, body was found a few days ago. Matt, you son, is hurt and alone. Maybe you should, I don't know, be a mother and help him." Bella says harshly. "Jenna, Alaric, Damon, Kelly has to go home now, good night." Kelly pulls her arm out of Bella's hand.

"NO." She says and sits down. "Damon was going to show me a good time." Kelly say as she looks at me.

"I'm sure he will, and you realise you can't handle him." Bella say gritting her teeth together.

Alaric stands up and I watch him as he tries to make peace. "How about I take her home, to her home when we're done?" Bella doesn't turn his way, she just keeps looking at Kelly. Alaric touches Bella's arm and I feel a panic taking over, almost if I am ready to fight him off her. I frown unsure why or where this panic has come from.

"Bella, sweetie, are you okay?" I look at Jenna to see that she's looking Bella's way with a lot of worry on her face. I turn and look at Bella, and for the first time I see that she looks scared and afraid, and her eyes are on Alaric's ring.

"Bella, you were right, time to go." Kelly says clearly and stands up quick with grip on Bella and almost drags her out of the bar. I look at Alaric and Jenna both looks as confused as I feel. I frown, trying to work out if the panic I felt had anything thing to do with Bella becoming afraid. If it did, how did I know before I looked at her? I let out a sigh and say my goodbye but I don't go home. Instead I go to Bella's place and watch her walk around her room talking away to nothing again. Only I can't hear a word of what's going on inside of the house.

The next few days I spend more and more time standing outside of Bella's house and seem to get nothing from inside. I frown when I hear my cell ringing and look down see an unknown number flash up.

"Hello?" I say not taking my eye from the house.

"Damon, it's Bella. I need your help." I smirk as Bella's telling me what going down.

"I'll be over in half an hour, get your dancing shoes on." I hang up and move quickly to get my car, glad that I keep spare clothes in it. I dress quickly then head over to get Bella. We arrive at Jeremy's just as Anna is walking to the door. I walk ahead of them as Bella tells Anna what's going on, that Elena and Stefan were planning on gate crashing her and Jeremy's date, so she came to take them somewhere where they could go one way and we could go another.

Elena's face was priceless as we all walked out together. We had only been gone five minutes when my cell had received twenty texts and ten calls. I roll my eyes and switch it off.

"Thank you, both of you. As much as I love my sister, I really don't want a double date with her and Stefan." I chuckle and nod my head. We wander for about 30 minutes before Jeremy walks off to the park with Anna.

"So Tink, where are you taking me? And where are my flowers?" Bella rolls her eye at my ridiculousness and walks away from me. I follow her and she goes down the street, turns two corners and comes to a flower shop. She stops, picks up a flower and takes it inside. I look through the window to see what's going on, only to watch her come out and hand it to me.

"For you, my pretty date." I chuckle and take it from her. I break the stem down a little and then place it in Bella's hair behind her ear.

"I think this will suit you so much more than me."

"So what was all that with you and Kelly, Matt's mom?" Bella looks away from me.

"I met her last year. She's not really good with guys. She gets herself into places she doesn't want. I was trying to help her and you out." I nod my head at her; I know that there is some truth to what Bella is saying.

"What upset you at the end, you looked scared?" Bella sighs.

"I met someone that had a ring like Alaric, and it just brought back unwanted memories, that's all." I frown, feeling angry as the fear is still there. Whoever this person is, he has to do with what ever happened to Bella last year.

I move on to something else as I feel myself getting worked up, in the end Bella and I end up at a drive through movie. I end up watching her more than the movie and I'm thinking back on how much I enjoyed myself on my first date. I have never, in both my human and vampire life, taken someone on a date. Katherine never wanted to be seen with me, and the girls before and after her were always just sex. I was never the dating type of guy.

I walk beside Bella as we head for Jeremy and Anna, everything inside me is itching to hold her hand. Before I can do it we come across Jeremy and Anna, who seem to be having an equally good time. I take one last look at Bella before offering my hand to Jeremy to help him up.

**So Katharine is there! Who do you think took Bella, and how will Damon react when he finds out that Katharine is Bella friend? **


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